FORMER IRANIAN President Mohammad Khatami has cancelled plans to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.
Iran's ambassador to the Holy See has confirmed that Khatami's plans for a visit to Rome have been set aside, although he declined to comment further, according to the Catholic World News webite. The former Iranian leader had been scheduled to participate in an October 27 seminar at the Gregorian University on Christian-Islamic dialogue and was to supposed to have met with the Pontiff' while he was in Rome.
The cancellation of Khataini's visit comes at a time of elevated tensions between Iran and the United Nations. The current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has warned that if the UN imposes economic sanctions upon Iran because of that country's continued efforts to develop a nuclear capacity, his government will respond with economic sanctions of its own.