Arafat to Visit Tehran Today for Talks With Khatami on Qods
August 10, 2000 - 0:0
TEHRAN Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat is due to arrive here today for a short visit for talks with President Seyed Mohammad Khatami, IRNA quoting the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday.
Arafat will make a brief visit for talks' President Khatami also who heads the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)," the ministry said in a statement.
The visit comes at Arafat's request, IRNA added.
Arafat, who has been making an extensive tour of mainly Arab states to explain his stance at last month's failed Camp David summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, is due in Moscow later today for a two-day stay, AFP said.
Arafat's last visit to the Iranian capital was in 1997, when he took part in the eighth summit of the OIC, the 56-nation pan-Islamic world body whose rotating presidency is currently held by Tehran.
Arafat, who actively supported the Islamic movement against Shah's rule, came to Tehran six days after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution at the invitation by numerous high-ranking Iranian officials.
During his stay, the first by a foreign official to Iran after the revolution, Arafat met with the Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini and opened a Palestinian diplomatic mission.
But Iran-Palestine relations deteriorated sharply soon after, deteriorating, notably due to the "active support" of Arafat's PLO for Iraq during its 1980-1988 war with Iran.
Tehran also accused Arafat of selling out the Palestinians by agreeing to negotiate with Israel, Iran's archenemy, in 1993.
The collapse of Camp David over the future status of Bait-ul-Moqaddas delighted Iran, which called on the Palestinians to "draw a lesson from the failure." Khatami earlier this week sent envoys to a number of Islamic states to discuss the question of Bait-ul-Moqaddas. The Palestinians want East Bait-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem) to be the capital of state they plan to declare on September 13, with or without a peace deal with the Israelis.
Khatami has repeatedly insisted that the holy city "belongs to the Palestinians and it is their right to decide its fate."
Arafat will make a brief visit for talks' President Khatami also who heads the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)," the ministry said in a statement.
The visit comes at Arafat's request, IRNA added.
Arafat, who has been making an extensive tour of mainly Arab states to explain his stance at last month's failed Camp David summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, is due in Moscow later today for a two-day stay, AFP said.
Arafat's last visit to the Iranian capital was in 1997, when he took part in the eighth summit of the OIC, the 56-nation pan-Islamic world body whose rotating presidency is currently held by Tehran.
Arafat, who actively supported the Islamic movement against Shah's rule, came to Tehran six days after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution at the invitation by numerous high-ranking Iranian officials.
During his stay, the first by a foreign official to Iran after the revolution, Arafat met with the Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini and opened a Palestinian diplomatic mission.
But Iran-Palestine relations deteriorated sharply soon after, deteriorating, notably due to the "active support" of Arafat's PLO for Iraq during its 1980-1988 war with Iran.
Tehran also accused Arafat of selling out the Palestinians by agreeing to negotiate with Israel, Iran's archenemy, in 1993.
The collapse of Camp David over the future status of Bait-ul-Moqaddas delighted Iran, which called on the Palestinians to "draw a lesson from the failure." Khatami earlier this week sent envoys to a number of Islamic states to discuss the question of Bait-ul-Moqaddas. The Palestinians want East Bait-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem) to be the capital of state they plan to declare on September 13, with or without a peace deal with the Israelis.
Khatami has repeatedly insisted that the holy city "belongs to the Palestinians and it is their right to decide its fate."