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Britain's Prince Charles arrives in Iran Britain's Prince Charles became the first member of a British royal family to visit Iran in 33 years, traveling to the site of a December earthquake a day after he met with troops in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Given the strained relations between Tehran and London since Iran's 1979 revolution, the visit had many Iranians wondering what the trip could mean, though the British Embassy asserted that it was a nonpolitical visit.
"The prince is a patron of the British Red Cross and is visiting Iran in that role. It's an official but completely a nonpolitical visit," said Andrew Dunn, First Secretary at the British Embassy in Tehran.
Dunn said Charles is scheduled to meet Iranian President Mohammad Khatami Monday morning before flying to Bam later in the day.
"Iran and the UK are on a much better footing now than they have been in the past, but this is not a political visit in any way," a spokesman for Clarence House, Charles' official residence, told Britain's Press Association.
The prince is accompanied by a small entourage that includes the head of the British Red Cross, Sir Nicholas Young.
A 6.6-magnitude quake flattened the southeastern city of Bam on Dec. 26, killing more than 41,000 people and injuring more than 15,000. The quake also leveled most of the ancient city, including the Arg-e-Bam, or Citadel of Bam, the world's largest mud-brick fortress.
On Friday, Charles made an appeal in London for funds to aid quake survivors.
Dunn said Charles and Young will assess how the British Red Cross can help the survivors and try to resume agricultural life in the area.
The last time a British royal family member visited Iran was in 1971, when Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Anne attended grand celebrations marking 2,500 years of monarchy in Iran.
Now, three decades later, Charles is visiting a completely different Iran, ruled by hard-line clerics who have routinely denounced British support of the former shah.
People on the streets of Tehran were surprised by Charles' visit.
"I won't believe a British royal figure is in Iran unless I see it by my own eyes," said Hadi Taqipour, a store clerk.
With Britain often serving as a bridge between Iran and the West, analysts say the unexpected trip will have political repercussions.
"The prince is not visiting Iran for tourism. The visit strengthens the position of hard-liners at a critical moment," political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand said.
Iran's hard-liners have disqualified thousands of reformist candidates from Feb. 20 elections, a move seen as an attempt by hard-liners to fix the polls in their own favor.
Britain has long had sticky relations with Iran. After the revolution, bilateral ties were strained by a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, issued by revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, against British author Salman Rushdie. The fatwa ordered Muslims to kill the novelist because he had allegedly insulted Islam in his best-selling novel, "The Satanic Verses."
In 1998, the Iranian government declared it would not support the fatwa, but said it could not rescind the edict as, under Islamic law, that could be done only by the person who issued it. Khomeini died in June 1989. |
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