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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Vatican mission seen successful
Careful cooperation with an Islamic regime
A week after returning from a diplomatic mission to Iran in March, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran told a Vatican Radio audience that his reception by the leaders of that country’s Islamic government had been “a positive sign” for the future of Catholic-Muslim relations.
Archbishop Tauran, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. He pointed out that this marked the first time that a representative of the Vatican Secretariat of State had been received in Teheran since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Iran in 1953. The Vatican maintained unbroken ties with Teheran despite the revolution that brought a militant Islamic regime to power in 1979.
The archbishop said that he and the Iranian leader had reached an agreement that “the force of law should prevail over the law of force” in international affairs. He said that the Iranian government had shown a willingness to solve diplomatic problems—and problems involving the treatment of Christians—according to principles of international law.