MADRID, May 24: Iran's foreign minister postponed a visit to Madrid in protest at Spain's decision to invite relatives of the former Shah of Iran to Crown Prince Felipe's wedding, diplomatic sources said on Monday.
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi had been due to meet his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos, on Monday. "That is what the Iranian embassy has said," a Spanish diplomatic source said when asked if the decision to invite the widow and son of pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Saturday's royal wedding had caused the postponement.
The shah was ousted in Iran's 1979 Revolution and died the following year. A spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Madrid said Kharrazi had put back his visit to Spain by one or two weeks but declined to give a reason.
In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi chided Spain for inviting Farah Diba and Reza Pahlavi to the wedding. "Inviting such individuals, who have been banished by the Iranian people, was not a suitable move," he told a weekly news conference on Sunday.
Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos said Spain wanted good relations with Iran but said King Juan Carlos could invite who he wanted to a family wedding. "We are in contact with them (the Iranian government). I don't think it will have any more repercussions... I think the meeting will be held before too long," Moratinos told Spanish state radio in Brussels. -Reuters
