A long-planned visit to Iran by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, the first by a member of the British government since the 1979 Islamic revolution, has again been postponed, a newspaper said Saturday.
The Qods daily cited informed sources saying that the visit by Cook, which has already been twice delayed, had been put off a third time and would not take place this year. It gave no further details.
Cook called off a May visit as the date fell near the second round of Iran's parliamentary elections, while a re-scheduled date in June had to be put off because of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi's overloaded schedule.
Kharazi visited London in January, with the two nations having restored full diplomatic relations that had been strained by the Salman Rushdie affair.
Tehran said in 1998 that it would not seek to carry out the death sentence on the British author, which had been called for by Islamic Iran's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khomeini called for Rushdie's death in 1989 over his satirical portrayal of the Islamic prophet Mohammad in his novel, "The Satanic Verses," which infuriated Muslims worldwide -- TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
