Iran ex-president invited to Washington - Yahoo! News

Iran ex-president invited to Washington - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Despite a diplomatic standoff over nuclear weapons and other difficult issues, a former Iranian president is making plans to speak next month at the Washington National Cathedral.

The former president

Mohammad Khatami, would be the most senior Iranian official to visit Washington since Islamic fundamentalists seized the U.S. Embassy in 1979 and held Americans there hostage for 444 days.

At the Cathedral, the Rev. Canon John L. Peterson, director of its Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, said U.N. Secretary-General

Kofi Annan had invited Khatami to participate in a conference Sept. 5-6 to promote dialogue.

He said the church's center "thought it would be appropriate to invite the president to speak on the role that the three Abrahamic faiths can play in shaping peace.

Evan Anderson, deputy director of the Center, said the former president was in Dubai preparing to apply for permission to visit the United States.