Khatami address Arab-Iranian Friendship Association

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami in an address to the first meeting of Arab-Iranian Friendship Association stressed the need for identification and removal of obstacles to dialogue between Muslim nations and the outside world.

Khatami said freedom is the most important right of human beings and any link between people's rights and justice should prepare the ground for a consensus on the meaning of a civil society. Elsewhere in his remarks, the President said the worst examples of human rights violations and injustice are seen in the occupied Palestine, where the worst form of terrorism is carried out by the usurper Zionist regime.

"The first Arab-Iranian Friendship Association opened Sunday at Esteglal Hotel in Tehran with a one-day conference. Some 70 Arab scientific and cultural figures and Arab ambassadors to Tehran along with a group of Iranian scholars attended the gathering. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Mousavi, who heads the association, addressed the audience on the goals of this newly created association. He said the confab is to enhance coordination among Iran and Arab states in a bid to promote economic growth, peace, security and unity," IRNA reported.