IFP - The Iranian Parliament has expressed its strong protest against Italy after its embassy in Tehran demanded to fingerprint two Iranian lawmakers expected to visit the country in the near future.





Iranian lawmaker Abolfazl Hassan Beigi says the Italian embassy’s fingerprint request is an insult to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the status of parliament membership, adding the parliament will not allow the embassy to go ahead with its insult.

“According to a plan by the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission to help Foreign Ministry via inspecting Iranian embassies abroad, I, along with another MP, Mohammad Javad Jamali, are expected to visit Italy. To make the arrangements, the Italian embassy in Tehran has announced that we need to be fingerprinted before the visit.”

“We consider the decision a blatant insult to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the status of Parliament membership and will not allow the embassy to insult us,” he was quoted as saying by the Khabar Online news agency.

The representative of Damghan also said the lawmakers have political passport and “this means that there is no need to fingerprinting because we have political immunity. So, the embassy’s decision amounts to an insult to us.”

The Iranian lawmaker said the chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Broujerdi “even suggested that the embassy fingerprints us in the parliament but they rejected the suggestion under various pretexts.”

He stressed that the Italian embassy’s decision is not “acceptable” under any condition and added “our visit to Italy has been delayed for over a month due to this issue but I would not go to Italy if they insist on their decision.”