The head of the European Jewish Congress Moshe Kantor called Monday for European Parliament members to cancel a visit to Iran which he suggested would bring "disgrace" to the EU, this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The visit "would send troubling messages to those groups inside and outside Iran who are risking so much in their fight for democracy, the rights of women and those of ethnic and religious minorities in Iran," Kantor said in a letter to parliament head Martin Schulz and party leaders.