cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/764259

Belgian foreign affairs minister Hadja Lahbib is facing calls for resignation after granting visas to delegations from Iranian and Russian cities to attend a mayors convention in Brussels last week.

Lahbib is under scrutiny for having approved visas requests for citizens from two countries under international sanctions and only three weeks after Belgian NGO worker Olivier Vandecasteele was released from an Iranian jail.

Vandecasteele, 42, was arrested on a visit to Iran in February 2022 and sentenced in January to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges including spying.

He was freed last month in a prisoner swap with an Iranian diplomat who had been imprisoned in Belgium in connection with a failed bomb plot.

The “Brussels Urban Summit,” which took place last week, saw the mayors of more than 300 international cities including Brussels, Bogota, Kyiv and Tehran and also members of the European Commission and the European Parliament, gathering to discuss challenges cities are facing.

State secretary for external relations & foreign trade of the Brussels government Pascal Smet resigned on Sunday over the all-expenses paid trip.