HomeIran Backs off on Rushdie Reward
By Anwar Faruqi
Associated Press Writer
Friday, September 25, 1998; 6:37 a.m. EDTUNITED NATIONS (AP) -- In a gesture likely to be welcomed around the world but attacked by hard-liners at home, Iran has said it will distance itself from a $2.5 million reward for killing author Salman Rushdie.
The Iranian ``government disassociates itself from any reward which has been offered in this regard and does not support it,'' Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Thursday after a meeting with his British counterpart, Robin Cook.
Both said they were ready to exchange ambassadors.
Kharrazi's comments stopped short of lifting Iran's death sentence on Rushdie and contained little that was new. The Iranian government has never officially backed the reward, and in recent years has even given assurances that it will not actively seek Rushdie's death.
But Kharrazi and Cook sought to portray the move as something new and significant as a way to improve ties that have remained strained over the issue. The two countries briefly severed ties over the death sentence and had refused to exchange ambassadors.
In London, a relieved Rushdie welcomed the news.
``This looks like it's over,'' Rushdie said. ``It means everything.''
Speaking outside the Foreign Office, Rushdie said, ``An extraordinary thing has been achieved.''
Cook, who met Kharrazi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session, said he was delighted with Iran's gesture.
``These assurances should make possible a much more constructive relationship between the United Kingdom, and I believe the European Union, with Iran, and the opening of a new chapter in our relations,'' he said.
The Rushdie affair has been the main hurdle blocking Iran's efforts to improve ties with the European Union. Britain has wanted to improve ties in order to benefit from lucrative projects in Iran that it has seen go to France and other European countries.
Iran has been trying to change its foreign policy since Mohammad Khatami, a moderate cleric, became president in August 1997. Khatami has underscored the need to replace confrontation with dialogue in Iran's relations with the West, including the United States.
Publication of Rushdie's ``Satanic Verses'' in 1988 caused an uproar among Muslims around the world, who contended that it insulted Islam.
Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a ``fatwa,'' or Islamic edict, calling on Muslims to kill the Indian-born British writer. The semiofficial Khordad Foundation offered a large reward to anyone who killed Rushdie. A few years ago, it increased the bounty to $2.5 million.
Khatami had said on Tuesday that his government wanted to put the Rushdie affair behind it.
But powerful hard-liners inside Iran's Islamic government have always stood by the death sentence, and are likely to continue to do so. Because of Khomeini's cult-like following Iran, no Iranian politician can be seen to condemn the fatwa.
Seven months ago on the ninth anniversary of the fatwa, the head of the foundation offering the reward, Ayatollah Hassan Sanei, said he was considering increasing it.
Iran's chief prosecutor, Morteza Moqtadaie, marked the anniversary of the fatwa in February by saying, ``The shedding of this man's blood is obligatory.''
State-run Tehran radio said at the time that ``the destruction of this man's worthless life could breathe new life into Islam.''
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press
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