Ex-Iranian president meets with the pope

May 05, 2007|Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY -- Former President Mohammad Khatami of Iran met yesterday with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pontiff's remarks on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep.

Khatami, a reformist in power from 1997 to 2005, had been scheduled to meet with Benedict in October but the meeting was canceled. No reason was given, but it was just weeks after Benedict's speech in Germany about Islam touched off protests across the Muslim world.

Yesterday, the two men spoke about the importance of "a serene dialogue between cultures intended to overcome the grave tensions that mark our times," the Vatican said in a statement after their 30-minute meeting.

But visiting a Catholic university in Rome before the talks, Khatami said that "unfortunately the wounds of this world are very deep and they cannot be healed easily and a single meeting may not be enough," the ANSA news agency quoted him as responding to a question about Benedict's speech.

Relations between Muslims and Christians were badly strained after Benedict quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

Benedict expressed regret that Muslims were offended.

As a sign of improved relations, he made a successful visit to predominantly Muslim Turkey in November.

It was Khatami's second meeting with a pope, after an audience with Pope John Paul II in 1999, two years after the Iranian took office.