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Iranian foreign minister calls for end to protests

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a press conference in Tehran yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Iran backed calls from other Muslim and world leaders for an end to violent protests over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons, urging calm, amid demonstrations that have left at least 45 people dead in the Muslim world over the past month.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, on a visit to EU headquarters on Monday, said that he and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged better dialogue between the Muslim world and the West over respect and tolerance.

"We accepted to cooperate with each other to calm down the situation, not to offend the values, religious values in particular from one side, and freedom of expression from the other side -- some kind of balance," Mottaki told reporters. "We should try to cool down the situation. We do not support any violence."

Solana said his visit last week to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and other Muslim nations to mend fences "was making headway."

Pope Benedict XVI also tried to soothe the tensions on Monday, saying religious symbols must be respected but violence can never be justified.

Mottaki added that freedom of expression must be exercised with sensitivity and with respect for others' values and beliefs.

Mottaki called on EU governments and media outlets "to take initiatives" preventing such cartoons from being published again to avoid further protest.

"We are all working, and we hope the press also will try to play their role and their responsibility," Mottaki said.

"We are facing ... angry Muslims all around the world. We have to try our best to avoid any violence," he said. "This is what we are trying to do in Iran ... So many of our policemen were attacked by angry people on the streets."

In Copenhagen, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller warned that al-Qaeda terrorists were exploiting the outrage over the drawings and condemned a Pakistani cleric who last Friday offered a US$1 million bounty for killing one of the cartoonists.

He called the reward "insane" and tantamount to terrorism.

"When money is put on the cartoonists' heads, then terror is also being used," Moeller said. "It's incitement to murder. Murder is also banned by the Koran."

Moeller noted that protests against the cartoons have been tapering off in many Arab countries, while escalating in Pakistan and Turkey.

"It's the extremist forces that wish to keep it going," he told reporters in Copenhagen. "There is no doubt that all extremists will exploit the situation. Al-Qaeda, too, will use it and fan the fire."

Mottaki said European governments were being hypocritical in their respect for freedom of expression, pointing to the example of Holocaust deniers, who he said were being put in jail for expressing their opinions.

"When we are talking about the freedom of expression ... it is very strange to see some European authors, some European members of parties are kicked out from their post or their position because they are making or creating some doubt about some part of some historical happening," Mottaki said.
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