Tehran on relations with Gulf states, openness, and US exchange

During his meeting yesterday with Iranian diplomats to the Arab Gulf states, Iranian President Muhammad Khatami said his government will form committees to study means of improving relations with the Arab Gulf states.

Khatami asserted the need to "cooperate with these countries in the political, economical and technological fields on the basis of mutual interests and ensuring the region's security."

Meanwhile, Iranian dailies reported on Wednesday that the Iranian president's advisor on women's affairs, Zahra Shujai called in a speech she delivered at Colombia University in New York on the sideline of a women's conference organized by the UN, for US women to visit Iran in the framework of Tehran's readiness to encourage cultural exchange between the two countries.

On the internal level, al-Nahar reported, Iranian dailies said that three chief Iranian men of religion in Qum city, Ayatollah Abdul Karim Musawi, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Sherazi and Ayatollah Youssef Sanai, called during the visit made by the Iranian minister of culture and Islamic guidance, Atallah Muhajirani, for more tolerance of self-expression in compliance with the Iranian government's desire to increase openness.