Iran’s Former President Khatami to Visit Britain

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s reformist former president Mohammad Khatami is to visit Britain for the first time to open an Iranian studies university department and receive an honorary PhD, his office said.

“He will appear at St Andrews University (in eastern Scotland), visit some British cities and make speeches,” a spokesman in his office said.

The spokesman did not specify a date but some reports suggested the visit would take place in late October.

Khatami, who was president from 1997-2005, will be the most senior Iranian politician to have visited Britain since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In September, Khatami visited Iran’s arch-enemy the United States, where he made speeches in cultural and academic circles but did not meet any American officials.