''I truly believe that this is a shameful approach and the wrong kind of engagement,’’ said Saba Farzan, Executive Director at the Foreign Policy Circle, a Berlin-based think tank, in response to a question about the current visit in Brussels of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif where he held talks with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and is expected to meet Tuesday with the members of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament.

‘’I am all for engagement with Iran but the right kind of Iran, its civil society, its young generation, its future. They should have been invited here instead of the representatives of an abusive dictatorship,’’ Farzan said in an interview with European Jewish Press (EJP).

A German-Iranian national, she addressed Monday in the European Parliament an discussion on Human Rights in Iran organised by the AJC Transatlantic Institute and the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR).

Asked if she was hopeful that the opening of Iran to the West following the lifting of the sanctions would bring changes in the country, she said : ‘’Iran is open to the entire world including to the west because it is connected to the world as millions of Iranians are engaged on the internet and socia media. It is foolish that the European Union, as the largest alliance of democracies around the world, believes that inviting, hosting and appeasing a very terrible dictatorship that has been oppressive to its own citizens and a force of destabilisation in the region, would change the Iranian society.’’

‘’The Iranian society has already changed. The current EU approach only secures that this dictatorship continues to exist,’’ Farzan added, arguing that the only way ‘’is isolating the Iranian leadership and instead engaging significantly with the Iranian young generation.’’ ‘’We observe more political engagement inside in Iran because the repression that is happening on a daily basis affects the Iranians living inside the country very much.’’

The session at the European Parliament, hosted by Dutch MEP Bastiaan Belder, pointed out that while the current Iranian leadership under President Rohani is being hailed as reformist , the regime’s human rights record has actually worsened. ‘’Over the past year, the number of public executions has sky-rocketed, the persecution of homosexuals and religious mnorities like Christians and the Baha’i has increased while civil society is still being violently repressed, ‘’the panelists said.

According to Saba Farzan, 743 people have been executed in 2015 in Iran and 58 since the beginning of this year.

‘’We hope that during their meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif MEPs will ask him difficult questions on the intensification of repression in the country,’’ said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatantic Institute.

Speaking at a press conference Monday following the EU Foreign Affairs Council, Federica Mogherini, who is expected to visit Tehran soon along with several members of the European Commission, declared that the issue of human rights comes up in the EU’s political dialogue with Iran.