Meeting between Pope Francis and Hassan Rouhani elicits enthusiastic comments in Iran
The country’s papers carry front-page photos of the Vatican meeting, except for Keyhan, a paper close to Khamenei. Foreign Minister Zarif comments meeting on Twitter. Online paper Asriran publishes photo gallery. Iranian intellectuals criticise the Italian government for covering nude statues at the Capitoline Museums to "avoid a little embarrassment for the sake of economic contracts with Iran."
Tehran (AsiaNews) – Today all of Iran’s newspapers, except for one, published the photo of Pope Francis shaking hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Keyhan, a newspaper close to Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, had a different front page.
All the comments were very positive, noting that this was the first meeting between the head of the Catholic Church and the president of Iran in 16 years.
In 1999, then President Mohammed Khatami visited the Vatican, and in 2005, he attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
After that, during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic Republic became a pariah, accused of wanting to destroy Israel and build nuclear weapons.
Today instead, all the newspapers agree that the papal visit is the first tangible result of the nuclear agreement signed by Iran and the great powers in Geneva last July.
On his Twitter account, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote, “Mutual commitment to join efforts for a World Against Violence and Extremism”.
The newspaper Keyhan focused instead on economic agreements signed with Italy, stressing the country’s social needs after years of a crippling embargo.
Asriran, an online paper close to the Iranian president, highlighted the importance of the event in the Vatican for Rouhani, at a time when the world is bound to compare Iranian vs Saudi policies in the Middle East. The paper presents a series of photos and captions showing the pontiff and Rouhani.
In Rome, Rouhani, who left for Paris today, also met his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, as well as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. He also addressed the Iran-Italy business forum.
During his stay, Iran and Italy signed multi-billion dollar deals worth up to 17 billion euros (US$ 18.4 billion. This is seen as part of the “thaw” following the end of sanctions.
However, online many Iranian intellectuals criticised the Italian government for sparing Rouhani from the embarrassing sight of “nude statues" in Rome’s Capitoline Museums, venue of the meeting between the Italian prime minister and the Iranian president.
Several classical Roman- and Hellenistic-era nude statues were covered by wooden cartons. For one commentator, this was to "avoid a little embarrassment for the sake of economic contracts with Iran."
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