Two Icelandic MPs, Bjarni Jónsson (Left-Green Movement) and Birgir Þórarinsson (Independence Party), have been blacklisted by the state of Azerbaijan, mbl.is reports. As a result, they will not be able to attend COP29, the UN Convention on Climate Change, scheduled to take place in Baku from November 11-22.
Birgir and Bjarni are among the 74 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) labelled as personae non gratae by the Azerbaijani government.
The situation can be traced back to January 2024, when PACE decided not to ratify the credentials of Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation. Among PACE’s concerns was the country’s inability to conduct free and fair elections, its separation of state powers, and the humanitarian and human rights violations stemming from the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan subsequently withdrew from PACE.
Birgir plans to introduce a motion for Iceland to boycott COP29. Given Iceland’s current political climate, mbl.is reasons the motion will be unlikely to succeed.
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