Iranian leader calls for a `radical and profound change' in political morality

President Mohammad Khatami likes the United Nations. A year ago, the General Assembly declared 2000 "the year of dialogue between civilisations", after the slogan on which the Iranian leader has based his popularity and overtures to the West.

Yesterday, Mr Khatami finally delivered a long-awaited address at UNESCO, after it was cancelled twice, apparently for security reasons.

He proved that he can speak the language of the international intellectual elite who generate so many tonnes of paper - and so much sleep - at the world's educational, scientific and cultural body.

The Iranian President's 16-page speech was mined with words like "dialectic", "positivist", and "post-modernist". His use of the German term entzaubrung (disenchantment) was a stunner.

"Quiddity" had me racing for the dictionary; it means "the essence of something, taking in both the substance and qualities".

The speech will not be remembered in the slums of south Tehran, but perhaps more important to Mr Khatami, there was nothing the fault-finding mullahs who opposed his visit to Paris could use against him.

The thick verbiage was uncharacteristic of Iran's friendliest cleric, but once you waded through the UNESCO-level vocabulary, there were some gems of Khatamist thought.

Within the "dialogue between civilisations", he said, "we must put the accent on the collective aspect of human existence . . . insisting especially on the fact that no great culture is born in isolation . . . only civilisations that had within them a gift for dialogue, for expression and listening have lasted."

Mr Khatami's call for a "radical and profound change" in political morality - a message clearly intended for the US - was the most commented on aspect of his speech.

"To those states who, using their economic and military power, commit the sin of arrogance by giving priority to the logic of force and domination to attain their ends, we must announce our preference for the path of wisdom and dialogue," he said.

Mr Khatami's rejection of the US as sole leader of the world was in harmony with French feelings.

Having failed to enlist the EU in its crusade against the "hyperpower", Paris this week recruited the Presidents of China and Iran. "We have a lot in common," Mr Khatami said of France at his subsequent press conference, "especially in view of the fact that we both reject the uni-polar system and believe that other countries should have a say in what happens."

Iran's improving relations with France would, he hoped, lead to better relations with the EU as well.

Although Mr Khatami did not use Ayatollah Khomeini's hallmark term, "the oppressed", his reference to "the immense pain and suffering of millions of human beings" ignored by rich countries placed him in the Imam's tradition.

"How can we speak of peace and security . . . when thirty 30 per cent of the world's population live in a state of absolute poverty? Even if the West cares only for its own survival, it is in its enlightened self-interest to help others," he argued.

Whether the Iranian President's life was really threatened, or whether the unprecedented security measures were merely a quirk of the French Interior Minister, is hard to say.

For three days, sections of central Paris were blocked off, gridlocking most of the city, so that Mr Khatami's convoy could drive from one location to another.

A woman - probably from the "people's mujaheddin" - was nonetheless able to rush from inside the cordoned-off UNESCO building to his car and throw a small object at him, shouting "Khatami's a terrorist, Khatami's a terrorist".

UNESCO staff and delegates said they had noticed her odd behaviour and that she had loitered around the building for three days. But she had the requisite badge, so no one said anything.