French foreign minister due in Tehran soon

Tehran said today that French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine will visit Tehran soon, adding that Paris considers this visit very important.

An Iranian source told ArabicNews.com that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif met with the French Foreign Ministry's Secretary-General Luke Hanikan in Paris on Friday.

The sources added that Hanikan confirmed to the deputy foreign minister that Vedrine's visit will be very important.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi received an invitation to visit Paris when the delegation from the European Troika held talks in the Iranian capital a few days before which tackled economic and security issues, human rights in Iran, terrorism and the accusations that Tehran seeks to possess weapons of mass destruction.

Iranian - European relations have eased after US President Bill Clinton called on Teheran to open official talks with Washington. Also, Europe has not been in agreement with the US on taking a very tough line against Iran by trying to isolate her as is current US policy.