Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani asks pope for prayers

Iran's president Hassan Rouhani took an important step down the road to improved relations with Western powers when he visited Pope Francis in the Vatican on Tuesday.

Mr Rouhani is on a four-day visit to Italy and France aimed essentially at reviving commercial relations with the West following the agreement last autumn of a seven nation nuclear deal that included the United States.

Although there was obviously no commercial aspect to his visit to the pope, the Iranian president used the occasion to present an image of an Iran open to dialogue. Calling his visit to the pope "a real pleasure", Mr Rouhani also called on Francis to pray for him.

Earlier in the morning, during an Italo-Iranian business forum, he had set the tone of the visit, when saying: “The Koran asks Muslims to above all protect churches and synagogues, that is what tolerance means.”

Mr Rouhani is only the second Iranian leader to be received in the Vatican, following the 1999 visit of Mohammad Khatami to Pope John Paul II, whilst this is the first state visit to Europe by an Iranian president in almost two decades.

For his part, Pope Francis will have been more than glad to receive the Iranian leader. In his keynote address to the diplomatic corps earlier this month, Francis singled out the “Iran nuclear deal”, adding that he hoped it would help the whole process of detente in the Middle East region.

Under a deal signed last year with major world powers Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities in return for a lifting of economic sanctions against it.

Vatican insiders point out that, to some extent, Shia Muslims – who make up the vast majority of the population of Iran – suffer a similar persecution to that of the Christian community in Sunni Muslim-dominated Middle Eastern countries.

In the official communique issued on Tuesday, the Holy See emphasised the “common spiritual values” and the “good relations between the Holy See and Islamic Republic”, adding: “Reference was made to the conclusion and application of the nuclear agreement, pointing out that Iran, along with other countries in the region, is called on to promote adequate political solutions to the problematics of the Middle East, in particular in combating terrorism and the arms trade.”

Vatican commentators speculated that, in order to further encourage Iran in its role of potential peacemaker, Pope Francis may now give consideration to returning Mr Rouhani's visit by travelling to Tehran. A visit to Tehran would fit in with the dialogue-oriented thrust of the pontificate of a pope who has played a key role in the USA-Cuba detente and who last November travelled to the war-torn Central African Republic.

Mr Rouhani also met both Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and president Sergio Mattarella. Italy, concerned about the further destablisation of Libya, also sees Iran as a potential peacemaker in Syria's civil war, a point underlined on foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni.

“Italy has always backed the role of Iran as a regional player in resolving tensions in the area, starting with the Syrian crisis,” he said.