Iranian minister insists Westerwelle visit was diplomatic in nature

Feb 25, 2011, 20:45 GMT

Tehran - Iran on Friday rejected the notion that the release of two German journalists last week was tied to political conditions, insisting that German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's trip to Tehran on the same day was diplomatically motivated.

'The trip ... and the release of the two reporters were two completely different matters,' the ISNA news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.

The journalists returned to Germany on Sunday after being detained for 133 days in Iran after entering the country on tourist visas and attempting to conduct interviews.

Westerwelle accompanied them back aboard a German government plane, but not before meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has faced widespread international criticism.

By flying to Tehran, Westerwelle became the first German foreign minister to visit the Iranian capital in seven-and-a-half years. He indicated that the meeting with Ahmadinejad had been a condition for the journalists' release.

But Salehi argued that Westerwelle had come for bilateral talks rather than to accompany the reporters back home.

'The trip took place following the release of the two journalists, hence the German foreign minister did not have to come to Tehran in this regard,' he said.

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