Iran foreign minister with the pope.

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Pope Benedict XVI met the Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki who came with a message of the very controversary Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinajad to the pontiff. Official sources said the Iranian letter didn’t focus at all on policy but was purely about religious matters. Moreover no details of the talks were released. The Iranian minister met the pope briefly after his general audience at the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.

 

Lot of friendly signs marked this meeting, and both parts are doing their best not to fall in the trap of civilization and culture clash. Vatican TV broadcast the event that gathered the Iranian foreign minister with the Iranian vice president Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei laughing, shaking hands and exchanging gifts with the pontiff, they also took a great pleasure posing for photographs.

 Earlier this month a conference about denying holocaust was held in Iran, in which the Iranian president denied all what Jewish suffered from with Hitler during the second world war, saying that it’s a pure manipulation and asking again to erase Israel from the world map as well as his appeal for a world without “Zionism”. The Vatican has indirectly criticised this conference saying that it was worsening the clash between civilizations.
A statement related to the conference said the holocaust was a tragedy that millions suffered from and no one can remain indifferent to, adding that this should serve as a warning to people’s consciences.

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