Britain's FM arrives in Iran on ground-breaking visit

23/04/2001| IslamWeb

TEHRAN, Sept 25 (AFP) -
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Tehran early Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking British official to visit Iran since that country's 1979 Islamic revolution, IRNA news agency said. (Read photo caption below)

Straw was due to hold talks here later Tuesday with President Mohammad Khatami and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi.

On the agenda will be latest developments surrounding a United States push to forge an international anti-terror coalition after the September 11 terror strikes on New York and Washington.

The situation in the Middle East will also be on the agenda, IRNA said.

Straw on his way to Tehran stopped over in Amman, where he held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II and later, at the airport, with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Despite more than two decades of official enmity between Iran and the United States, Tehran condemned the terror blitz on the US, although it has expressed opposition to retaliation on neighbouring Afghanistan, which harbours Washington's chief suspect Osama bin Laden.

Shiite Muslim Iran is fiercely opposed to the Sunni Muslim Taliban militia who rule Afghanistan, but nevertheless has warned of a "human catastrophe" if the US launches a military strike.

Instead, Iran has been drumming up support among the international community and notably Arab and Islamic states for a UN-led international coalition to fight terrorism.

The US keeps Iran itself on a list of nations it says support or sponsor international terrorism.

Tehran, which for its part does not recognise Israel and backs the Palestinian intifada or uprising, also insists the global community recognise Israeli attacks on Palestinians as a form of "state terrorism."

Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told AFP that Straw's trip was "an important visit for Iran."

Asefi said Tehran had already spoken with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to stress opposition to any moves that would endanger lives in Afghanistan.

Straw, in a message to the Iranian people ahead of his arrival in Tehran, said he hoped his trip would mark the start of a "dialogue" and "closer cooperation" between Tehran and London.

The two nations broke off diplomatic relations in 1989 after Islamic Iran's founder, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called for the death of British author Salman Rushdie for allegedly insulting Islam in his writing.

But the two nations exchanged ambassadors again a decade later.

The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since April 1980, several months after Islamic radicals seized the US embassy in Tehran and took the staff hostage.

PHOTO CAPTION:
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, left, walks with Deputy of Chief of Protocol of Iran's Foreign Ministry Mohammad Reisi upon his arrival at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, Monday, Sept. 24, 2001. Straw is the first British Foreign Minister to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)