British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Tehran early Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking British official to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Straw told the reporters present at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport that he was not carrying any message from the United States for Iranian leaders, reported the official Iranian news agency (IRNA).
Referring to his Tuesday meetings with President Mohammed Khatami and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, Straw said that he really looked forward to them.
Answering a reporter's question on whether he had any message from any American politicians for the Iranian leaders, Straw said, "I'm carrying no message from Washington to Tehran and I made that clear in my interview with the BBC in London this morning already."
The British foreign minister said that the trip had been arranged bilaterally between Iran and the United Kingdom and that he was there as “Her Majesty's secretary of state for the Commonwealth affairs on behalf of the United Kingdom and no other country.”
Straw has already been to Jordan on the first leg of his Middle East tour on Monday, and will visit a couple of other countries before his return to London, but the schedule for those trips has not been announced yet, said the agency.
Refusing to answer any more questions, Straw promised to answer all the reporters' questions at the press conference after his meetings with Iranian officials in the morning.
Straw will have a one-day stay in Tehran, and according to a British embassy official at the airport, will most probably leave Tehran for Islamabad Tuesday night.
Straw had told a press conference in London that he had decided to bring forward his planned trip later this year after Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke on the phone with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, and his own conversations with Iranian counterpart, Kharrazi.
President Khatami was very strong in his condemnation of last week's terrorist attacks in the US, and Iran is a country that has also suffered severely from terrorism, Straw said.
His visit to Tehran has been included in a trip to the Middle East between September 25 and 27, which was planned as part of a hectic series of global British diplomatic efforts in response to the attacks in New York and Washington.
The foreign secretary told reporters that there was a great deal to discuss in Tehran and that there was obviously a desire to improve relations with what he said was an extremely important country in the Middle East. Relations with Iran, he said, had improved thanks to the efforts of his predecessor Robin Cook, whose planned visits to Tehran were cancelled twice last year.
Britain and Iran agreed in September 1999 to restore full diplomatic relations for the first time since the Islamic Revolution.
Kharrazi subsequently visited London in January 2000 and an exchange of ambassadors also took place, but a return British visit was repeatedly delayed.
Since becoming foreign secretary in June, Straw has indicated a desire to take the invitation extend to Cook to visit Tehran before Ramadan at the end of this year.
Last year, former Cabinet Secretary Mo Mowlam became the first UK cabinet minister to visit Iran in more than two decades, when she signed a memo of understanding between the two countries on combating drug trafficking.
20 DETAINED FOR PROTESTING AGAINST STRAW VISIT
Iranian police detained 20 demonstrators as they protested outside the British embassy in Tehran against a landmark visit by Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
AFP quoted Mellat newspaper as saying that dozens of Muslim fundamentalists took part in Monday's protest. Some of the detained were held only briefly and others were expected to be released soon.
Police, including anti-riot forces, were deployed in strength around the embassy to prevent the unauthorized demonstration, which took place just hours ahead of Straw's arrival early Tuesday.
Dozens of protestors approached the embassy but they later left peacefully and the riot police withdrew their cordon, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
