BRUSSELS (EJP)---The Speaker of Majlis, the Iranian parliament, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, has canceled his scheduled visit to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, where he was due to address Thursday the parliamentary assembly, Iran's news agency IRNA reported.

According to the agency, the decision was made in protest to "the dual behavior" of the 47-member states Council of Europe officials.

The speaker’s decision was made after it was reported that a number of members of the Council of Europe parliament have met with the leader of the Mujahideen Khalq or People’s Mujahedin of Iran organization (MKO), an Iraq-based group that advocates the overthrow of Iran’s current government.

Maryam Rajavi, head of The National Council of Resistance - the Paris-based political wing of MKO - spoke Monday to MPs from the Council of Europe. 

MPs protests

Several MPs from all major political groups in the assembly had protested Haddad Adel’s visit, calling on fellow lawmakers to leave the building if he spoke.

They said a speech by a high-ranking representative of Iran to a human right body was unacceptable, as the country supports the liquidation of Israel, denies the Holocaust and is a threat to world peace because it tries to obtain a military nuclear capacity.

Haddad-Adel had been invited by the president of the Council of Europe to address the pan-European body’s parliament as rotating chairman of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).

He was due to talk about Asia’s specific status at the international community and the efforts which are underway to promote the continent’s role in international developments.

Jewish groups and a pro-Israel organization deplored this week the invitation made by the Council of Europe to the Iranian official who is considered a hardline conservative politician and close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.