New Delhi
28 November 2007
Reinvigorating her relations with Iran, India is playing host to
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of Guardian Council of the Persian Gulf nation. He is the
second Iranian leader to visit India this month. Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour
Mohammadi was in New Delhi a few weeks ago and he had called on Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati arrived in New Delhi over the weekend on a weeklong official
visit at the invitation of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR.) His is the first
visit to India by the head of Iran's Guardian Council. Ayatollah Jannati held talks with
Vice President Hamid Ansari on a range of bilateral, regional and international issues.
The visiting Iranian leader met with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Chief
Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami. Earlier this year Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and
three others were appointed as members of the panel monitoring the Iranian legislative
elections expected to be held in March next year.
The Guardian Council is the most influential body in Iran. It consists of six clerics and
six jurists and it performs legislative, judicial and electoral functions. It holds veto power
over all Bills approved by the Majlis or Iranian Parliament and it can reject Bills that are
not compatible with Sharia or Islamic law. It, therefore, is like a constitution court, with
the powers to interpret the Constitution. It can also bar candidates from standing in
elections to parliament, the presidency and the Assembly of Experts.
The Vice President's Office did not issue a press release about his meeting with the
Iranian leader but Vice President Ansari articulated his views last week. Mr Ansari, who
served as India's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Saudi Arabia, told
an international seminar here that George W Bush Administration's policies of
unilateralism, creative destruction and pre-emption have faltered and the "absence of
decisive evidence of Iranian culpability has been a restraining factor."
For his part, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed the hope that the India-Pakistan-Iran
gas pipeline project will soon be finalised. "We are happy to observe that the time-tested
friendship between India and Iran is continuing. We are like brothers," Mr Chatterjee
said, accepting the Ayatollah's invitation to visit Iran. The Iranian leader, in turn, said
that Iran is keen on strengthening its relationship with friendly countries like India.
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