Iran's President Mohammad Khatami has said that the case of British author Mr Salman Rushdie, still occasionally subject to threats from Iranian hardliners, should now be seen as closed, a newspaper reported today.
"I expect and hope that this question, which has been frequently raised for several years, will not come up again...We should see the Salman Rushdie case as closed," Mr Khatami told the reformist daily
Tosea
.
Khatami, who is seeking re-election on Friday, was instrumental in resolving tensions with Britain over a 1989 religious ruling by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that condemned Rushdie to death for alleged blasphemy against Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses .
We believe that what happened in the Salman Rushdie saga was an expression of a war of civilisations launched by the West against Islam..., in which we took a defensive position, Khatami said.
Iran and Britain agreed to improve ties after Tehran pledged in 1998 not to seek to carry out the ruling. Analysts say the Iranian move was most likely backed by top conservative leaders.
Khatami did not mention threats by some hardline-led Iranian institutions, including the Revolutionary Guards, which have continued to call for Rushdie's death.
Hardliners who control key levers of power have blocked most of Khatami's liberal social and political reforms.
Khatami voiced support for freedom of thought and expression, but added: We do not see insults against religious sanctities as thoughts.