Moussa receives Kharazi

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa yesterday received Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi.

Following the meeting, Moussa told reporters the meeting had dealt with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)'s Foreign Ministers conference due in Doha on October 9.

Moussa added that his talks with Kharazi dealt with an anti Muslim campaign and how to counter it.

"These accusations against Islamic civilization are unacceptable," he added. Moussa said that he had discussed with the Iranian official a proposal made by his pan-Arab organization to set up a think-tank to expose the anti-Islam fallacies.

Moussa termed as dangerous recent remarks made by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who was quoted as depicting the Western civilization as superior to the Islamic one.

"Though the Italian Premier apologized, this is not the issue. This topic has been at the heart of a lot of discussions behind closed doors. This shows that there are bad intentions for which we should prepare."

He added that the Berlusconi remarks meant that "work is under wary to contain Islam as Communism was contained."

The Italian Premier drew fire from the Muslim world when he claimed during a visit to Germany that the Western civilization was superior to that of Muslims.

Later he said that the remark was taken out of the context and expressed sorrow.

Meanwhile, Kharazi described as strange that the remark had been made in a year designed to promoting a dialogue among civilizations.

The Iranian official said that his country was supporting world anti-terror cooperation under the UN banner, not through "a US-led alliance".

Kharazi termed as "strong and unequivocal" the stands taken by the Arab League since the September 11 deadly attacks on New York and Washington.