Brusells: Pascal Smet, a regional representative for Belgium in Brussels, resigned on Sunday after causing a stir by hosting an Iranian delegation led by the Tehran mayor.

Hadja Lahbib, the foreign minister of Belgium, accused Smet of "sullying the image" of the city by allowing an Iranian delegation and a Russian delegation to attend the Brussels Urban Summit, a gathering of mayors from significant cities around the globe. Lahbib made the accusation three days before Smet's resignation.

Smet, the state secretary for urbanism in Brussels, announced his resignation at a press conference.

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He claimed that after learning from an email from his office that the regional government of the city was covering the hotel expenses for Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani and two Russian officials during the conference, he felt compelled to act.

Smet insisted that he "didn't make a personal mistake," claiming that one of his staff members had committed to the accommodation without his knowledge.
Iran and Belgium have tense relations.

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In exchange for Tehran releasing a Belgian aid worker and three other Europeans it had imprisoned, Belgium last month freed an Iranian diplomat who had been detained on terrorism charges for planning to blow up an Iranian opposition rally outside of Paris in 2018.

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Zakani, who formerly served as the head of Iran's Basij militia, is allied with the country's theocratic national rulers and has strong ties to its Revolutionary Guards. Despite opposition from her foreign ministry, Lahbib claimed Smet had insisted on issuing visas to Zakani and the other 13 members of the Iranian delegation.

The deputy mayor of Kazan, a city in western Russia, and a representative of a Russian organisation that federates large cities were the other two Russians who received visas to attend the urbanism conference.