Iran: Respecting Muslim values fundamental to talks

Communities must respect each other’s sanctities and values in order to engage in meaningful dialogue, the Anadolu Agency reported the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying yesterday.

Asked by reporters in Geneva minutes before his talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry began about the latest Charlie Hebdo magazine cover depicting the Prophet Mohammad, Zarif said: “We believe that sanctities need to be respected. Unless we learn to respect one another, it will very difficult in a world of different views and different cultures and civilisations, we won’t be able to engage in serious dialogue if we start disrespecting each other’s values and sanctities.”

Zarif and Kerry met earlier to prepare for talks scheduled to take place between Iran and the West later this month.

The Iranian foreign minister pointed out they would discuss “more details of the upcoming negotiations”, hoping the next round of talks would yield positive results.

As many as 12 people were killed, including two policemen and eight journalists last week in an attack on the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, followed by other attacks which claimed the lives of five people.

The magazine published its first edition after the bloody attack on 14 January featuring a cartoon of a tearful Prophet Mohammad with the headline “All is forgiven”.