Iranian envoy calls on STAR publisher

Ambassador Gholamreza Yousefi of the Islamic Republic of Iran assured STAR chairman and publisher Max V. Soliven that a much-publicized "invasion" of young Iranians via Bangkok or Seoul (South Korea) traveling on fake passports was nothing to fear.

According to his government’s inquiries, the "feared infiltrators" from Iran were merely the equi-valent of Filipino TNTs (tago nang tago), young persons seeking work in other countries, some of them attempting to "transit" through Manila.

The envoy, who has been here for almost a year, made these remarks during a courtesy call on Mr. Soliven the other day.

Ambassador Yousefi said newspaper reports about 100 Iranians waiting in Bangkok, for instance, for a "signal" to enter the Philippines on the strength of fake documents were exaggerated.

He referred to so-called Iranians posing as European tourists with doctored Belgian, French, Italian, German and Dutch passports. He said they were deported at the international airport (NAIA) when their counterfeit passports were detected, and confirmed that two Iranians among them were stopped and sent away last week.

The ambassador said that, in fact, Tehran and its armed forces and Revolutionary Guards were constantly on border alert to prevent the entry of Islamic fundamentalist "terrorists" themselves, such as those dispatched by the hostile Taleban, the Muslim fundamentalists who have taken over 90 percent of neighboring Afghanistan.

The Iran border patrol also guards against Afghan drug smugglers whose country produces most of the opium (from poppy fields) that is sneaked into Iran, Turkey, Russia, and parts of Europe. The 71 million Iranians, predominantly Shiite Muslims themselves (51 percent Persian, 24 percent Azeri, 8 percent Gilaki/Mazandarani, 7 percent Kurdish, 3 percent Arab, 2 percent each Baloch, Turkman and Lur), have as one of their priorities the rebuffing of the Taleban Pukhtuns who practice a medieval form of fundamentalist and intolerant Islam, the ambassador said.

The Taleban, as a matter of fact, are even threatening the northwestern section of neighboring Pakistan, a nation previously supportive of them. The Taleban are also threatening Russia, he added, and the Muslim republics of Central Asia.

Ambassador Yousefi underscored that friendly relations and lucrative trade ties between Tehran and Manila have been growing in the past few years under the Presidency of Ayatollah Mohammad Khatami and his reformist, moderate Islamic government.

Khatami was elected in 1997 with over 70 percent of the vote on a 90 percent turnout.

The envoy pointed out that Iraq, still under Saddam Hussein, also remains a "threat" to Iran, and stressed the Iranians have neither stomach nor inclination to pursue any "terrorist" agenda in Southeast Asia.

Ambassador Yousefi invited Soliven to visit Iran this year as a guest, so he could see for himself the progress achieved in the past few years and the democracy and adherence to law being practiced, coupled with a modern internationalist outlook.

The envoy, born in 1957 in ZanJan, Iran, graduated in Political Science from Tehran University. He was director of the First Department for Far East, Asia and Pacific countries, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1997-1999). He served as Ambassador to Thailand (1991-1996), and was concurrently accredited Ambassador to Yangon (Myanmar) and Vientiane (Laos).

In 1990-1992, Yousefi was director of Second Department for Far East Asia and Pacific, and before that of the First Department for South Asian countries.

He was posted in Dakha as Ambassador to Bangladesh (1985-1989) and previously director for cultural relations, Foreign Ministry. He was also editor for Political Service and Essays of the Kayhan newspaper in Tehran.