SCHROEDER SAYS WILL VISIT IRAN ONLY WHEN CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT
BERLIN 8th Feb (IPS) German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder politely rebuked his Iranian counterpart Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami, telling him he accepts his invitation to visit Iran "only when conditions were right".
The rebuke came during an unscheduled meeting in Berlin Thursday with the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi conveying to him an official invitation from Iranian President in response to the trip he paid to Germany last August.
"The chancellor accepted the invitation. At the same time, however, he pointed out that there have to be basic given conditions in order that such a visit can lead to the success that both sides wish for", a spokesman for the Chancellor said.
Mr. Schroeder was scheduled to go to Iran this spring, but condemnations, some of them very harsh, handed down by an Islamic revolution court against some of the moderates Iranians who were invited by Germany last April severely damaged relations between Tehran and Berlin.
Seventeen leading Iranian reformists of all walks, ranging from religious-nationalist cleric to secularist scholars, human rights activist lawyer, journalists and intellectuals were invited by the Heinrich Boel Cultural Institute to prepare the German public opinion for the visit of Iranian President, described as a moderate.
But after the participants returned, they were jailed, accused of having engaged in propaganda and activities against the "sacred Islamic State", claiming that the Conference was organised by "Zionist circles in collaboration with Israel and the United States".
The Iranian ruling conservatives, acting on orders from the fundamentalist leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, shut down all reformist and moderate press and jailed a dozen of influential journalists.
Mr. Akbar Ganji, a well-known investigative journalist and researcher was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and five years of exile to a remote corner of Iran. Mrs. Mehranguiz Kar, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist who suffers from breast cancer and needs urgent treatment in t he West, was sentenced to four years.
Mr. Sa’id Sadr, an official translator of the German Embassy in Tehran and Mr. Khalil Rostamkhani, an independent translator were given ten years each even though they were not guests of the Berlin Conference.
Mr. Ali Afshari, a student’s leader and Mr. Ezzatollah Sahabi, a veteran journalist and politician were condemned to five and four and a half each.
The sentences outraged both German authorities and the press. Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer immediately summoned Mr. Ahmad Azizi, the Iranian Ambassador in Berlin to express his "profound concerns" about the sentences.
Iran retaliated in anger. As the Foreign ministry was accusing Berlin of "interfering in Iranian domestic affairs", conservatives-controlled newspapers urged the government to tell the German Chancellor that "the best thing he can do is to avoid to come to Iran", a reference to a news in some German magazine saying that Mr. Schroeder had decided to postpone his visit to Iran.
But the chancellor's office denied the report, stating that he intends to go to Iran "but when the time is right".
In an EU ministerial committee held immediately after the sentences to review the state of relations with Tehran, several capitals, including Berlin, Rome and Madrid, decided against any bold reaction, claiming that any such move would harm the reform process in Iran.
In that statement, Germany said it was keen to improve relations with Iran despite the recent strains and made clear that its sympathy lay with the reformers around Khatami.
"The focus of Mr. Kharrazi’s visit will be on German-Iranian relations and Iran's position in regional questions as well as on security policy and disarmament", the German Foreign ministry said.
Once very close in all fields, Tehran-Berlin relations suffered several blows, most notably in April 1997 after a Berlin High court ruled that the "highest Iranian authorities, including Ayatollah Khameneh'i and the then president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were directly responsible for the assassination of Iranian dissidents inside and outside Iran".
According to the court, Iranian agents had assassinated four Kurdish leaders who were invited by Germany to take part at an international socialist meeting held in Berlin on September 1992.
In retaliation, the Iranians arrested a German businessman and condemned him to death, accused of having sexual relationship with a young Iranian Muslim woman.
He was eventually freed after payment of half a million DM. ENDS IRAN GERMANY 9201