TEHRAN The visiting Syrian Minister of Culture Dr. Najah al-Attar said that Syrians highly respect the Iranian president for his culturally progressive doctrines. Al-Attar made the remark in her meeting with Iran's President Mohammad Khatami here Tuesday, IRNA reported. She said the Islamic Republic can develop in to a highly enlightening center and into a cultural focus for the entirety of the Muslim world and for non-Muslim cultures for that matter.

The Syrian minister also appreciated the attitudes of the Iranian president in the area of the cultural progress and his stress on the need for the strong presence of women on the various scenes. The Iranian president told Mrs. Al-Attar that the Iranian women owed their cultural elevation and their healthy participation on the various scenes to the cultural miracle worked by the Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the late Imam Khomeini. President Khatami offered his best reards to Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad and told Mrs. Al-Attar that he hoped politics and economy would be relied upon as tools for cultural collaboration in the interest of peace and coexistence between nations.