France boycotts an Iranian forum in response to the execution of journalist Ruhollah Zam

Germany, Italy, France and Austria did not show up for today's online event in the Iranian capital. Tehran was hosting a high level business forum to which different European countries were invited.

The European countries took this decision in protest against the execution of opposition journalist Ruhollah Zam. A few hours before the start, and once the news was known, the organizers of the forum proposed to postpone the event.

This postponement comes in the midst of a growing diplomatic dispute between Iran and European countries. The murdered journalist enjoyed political asylum in France, after documenting the mass protests that took place in Iran in 2017.

Ruhollah Zam was director of the website Amadnews, and was hanged last Saturday after being sentenced to death for inciting protests against the regime. The journalist lived in exile in France for several years, but was arrested in Iran in 2019 by the intelligence service of the Guardians of the Revolution Corps.

France explicitly disagreed with Iran's decision, calling the execution "barbaric and unacceptable" and in violation of Iran's international commitments. The leaders of the European Union also harshly criticised the execution: in response, Teheran summoned the ambassadors of Paris and Berlin, who have held the rotating presidency of the European Union since early July.

The French also announced through its social networks that its ambassador to Iran would not participate in the European-Iranian Business Forum, along with the other three envoys. In addition, to boycott the trade event, European diplomatic representatives launched the hashtag #nobusinessasusual in the networks.

A new divide is opening up between European countries and Iran. The European Union has made efforts to maintain cordial relations with the Arab country and above all to keep the 2015 nuclear agreement on track. The main reason for this effort is to prevent the Iranian economy from collapsing, already suffocated by the sanctions imposed by the United States, and to avoid the crisis that the COVID-19 is causing worldwide.

Once again a gap is appearing in EU-Iran relations that is directly related to respect for human rights. The European Union strongly condemned the execution of Zam, as did Amnesty International and the rights group Reporters Without Borders.