Britain and Iran could forge a new relationship on the back of international efforts to beat terrorism, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday after mid-air talks with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami about last week's attacks on the United States.
Speaking to reporters aboard a chartered jet en route to the United States, Blair said he had just had a "remarkable conversation" with Khatami.
The 15-minute satellite telephone conversation came as Blair flew to talks with US President George W. Bush to see for himself the devastation in New York caused by last week's suicide plane attacks.
"I have just put down the phone after a conversation with the president of Iran, and that in itself was a remarkable conversation," Blair told reporters travelling with him.
"Not only did he give his full solidarity in terms of what had happened to the USA and his strong condemnation of terrorism," he added.
Khatami also hinted at "a new relationship between our two countries as well."
"It was a conversation I could not have imagined having a couple of weeks ago," Blair said.
Iranian television later reported that Blair and Khatami had discussed the idea of organising meetings between Islamic and Western thinkers to avoid a war between the two civilizations.
"Cooperation between Tehran and London to organise meetings between thinkers from the Islamic and Western worlds would be an effective way to prevent a war between civilizations," Khatami was quoted as saying.
Khatami said he deplored what he viewed as attempts to create a crisis between Islam and the West, and thanked Britain for "condemning these attempts."
"Because of certain disagreements over points of view, extremists on both sides are trying to intensify confrontations," Khatami said.
"It's possible that the Islamic world and the West have different points of view on questions such as Palestine, but as for terrorism and the incidents last week in the United States, they have the same opinion condemning terrorism," he said.
The television also quoted Blair as saying that "we must all try to discern between religions and terrorism," and that "the idea of discussions between different religions would be beneficial."
Iran, which has not had diplomatic relations with the United States for the past 21 years, condemned last week's attacks.
However, it has also warned against any US reprisals targeting neighbouring Afghanistan, which is harbouring Osama bin Laden, the primary suspect for the suicide plane attacks.
Britain's ties with Iran have warmed significantly over the past few years after reaching a low point with the 1989 fatwa (religious decree) calling for the death of writer Salman Rushdie for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
They decided to normalise ties in September 1998 after Tehran said it would not seek to apply the decree.
In May 1999, the two countries upgraded diplomatic ties by promoting their respective charge d'affaires to the rank of ambassador -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
