Qashqavi: Schroeder's visit to Iran served no mediatory purposes

Tehran, Feb 23, IRNA - Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the visit of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to Iran served no mediatory purposes between Iran and the US.

Talking to reporters during his weekly press briefing, he said the
German politician?s visit was a non-official, personal trip to Iran to
participate in the opening of two medical centers in the country.

However, he said, since Schroeder was a party figure in Germany and
used to serve as a chancellor, he naturally had a number of meetings
with Iranian officials during which issues of mutual interests
including the situation in the region, international economic
situation and the overall US policies were discussed.

He said, as the German politician had already stressed himself, the
visit served no other purposes than the officially declared one and
there was no talk of his playing a mediatory role.

He further rejected a report by a daily titled ?National? claiming
that Tehran has held talks with Washington on offering its soil to the
US to transit arms and forces to Afghanistan and said no talks have
been held between the two countries on the issue.

Saying that there was no military solution to the crisis of
Afghanistan, the spokesman said if military solutions were of any use
at all for Afghanistan, they would have resulted in improved situation
in the country by now.

He said Iran had always pioneered in efforts to establish peace and
stability in Afghanistan.

In answer to a reporter who asked whether Iran was interested in
holding the fourth round of talks with the US on situation in Iraq
before the issue of the kidnapped Iranian diplomats in Iraq was
settled, he said the two issues were utterly separated.

He said Iran?s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, too, made it clear
during his recent visit to Iraq that for the talks to resume, the two
sides needed to focus on a certain subject.

Stressing that lesser presence of occupying forces in Iraq meant
greater security for the country, the Iranian Foreign Ministry
spokesman stressed that Iran never rejected the overall idea of talks
and was ready to consider calls for talks provided there was a certain
central topic to focus on.

He further hoped the kidnapped Iranian politicians returned to their
families soon and noted that Iranian officials raised the issue during
their meetings with Iraqi officials.

Turning to the rumors regarding the sheltering offered to the
terrorist Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) by Egypt, Qashqavi said
Iran was examining the authenticity of the news since it had received
nothing on the topic from reliable and official news sources.

Answering a question on the fluctuations observed in Iran-Egypt ties,
he said Iran regarded Egypt as a country with a great civilization and
was interested in boosting cooperation with it but the two countries
certainly had different views on regional issues.

He also said that expert work between Iran and Kyrgyzstan was still on
to clarify the cause of the crash of a Kyrgyz airliner during which a
number of Iranian citizens lost their lives.