Iran prevented a group of European Union lawmakers from holding a press conference with the foreign media in Tehran, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported yesterday. AFP reported that an Iranian security official threatened “action against reporters and photographers if they tried to film the incident.”

Having called a press conference at their hotel in the capital, the plans of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament were disrupted, prompting an angry exchange on the street.

After being ushered off hotel premises, Elmar Brok, chairman of the committee, angrily told the security official: “You cannot stop me from talking to reporters.”

But Brok, a German MEP, was pointedly warned he had no right to speak to media near the end of a two-day trip, which comes as world powers near a June 30 deadline for a deal on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.

Brok later told AFP “This is an old behaviour which has nothing to do with the new politics of Iran,” but added that “this unhappy incident did not spoil the visit.”

Brok was mentioned and his image prominently featured in an article today on Iran’s semi-official PressTV website, which quoted an Iranian politician accusing Israel of “sabotaging” the nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 nations. The PressTV article didn’t report the intimidation of Brok, his fellow parliamentarians, and reporters.

Brok cancelled a planned interview with PressTV in protest of his treatment.

A recent editorial in The Washington Post raised concerns that, given the arrest and ongoing prosecution of its reporter Jason Rezaian, visitors to Iran “are vulnerable to being seized as hostage.”

Last month, Iran’s foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif was mocked for saying that Iran “doesn’t imprison journalists or dissidents over their views.”

[Photo: Committee of the Regions / YouTube ]