UNITED NATIONS, 6 November 2005 — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has canceled his forthcoming trip to Tehran in response to the Iranian president’s call to “wipe Israel off the map,” the United Nations said on Friday. But Iran’s official IRNA news agency said it was the government in Tehran which asked Annan to postpone his visit to the country.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry contacted the United Nations office in Tehran “to ask Kofi Annan to put off his visit for a more appropriate time,” IRNA said late Friday, citing a “well informed source” in the ministry. The agency gave no explanation for the decision other than talking of recent comments by Annan made “under the influence of American officials”.

Earlier Friday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that Annan’s planned trip to Iran had been put off, but said it was a joint decision. “The secretary-general and the Iranian government have mutually agreed that this is not an appropriate time for him to travel to Iran,” he said. “In light of the ongoing controversy, it would have been difficult to advance the agenda that he had wanted to discuss with the Iranian leadership,” Dujarric said.

Annan had planned to visit the Iranian capital in mid-November during a swing through the Middle East beginning next week, presumably to talk about Iran’s nuclear policy.

But since the trip was arranged, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew international condemnation for his remarks on Oct. 26.

Annan, who had previously rebuked the Iranian president, told reporters on Thursday that “no one in the international community defended what the Iranian president said and the Security Council itself issued a statement.”

He was answering questions on why he had not called off the trip and also hinted at a change saying, “My itinerary is still being refined and I will announce it later.” At the same time, Annan, in keeping with the organization’s policy of communicating with all member states, said, “Obviously, we need to engage people and governments.”

Among those advocating he cancel the trip was California Rep. Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee.

Lantos praised Annan on Friday “for postponing a trip to Iran in the wake of outrageous comments made late last week by the Iranian president.” The congressmen has been a friend for years of Annan and his wife, Nane, the niece of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who rescued Lantos, among tens of thousands of others Jews, from the Nazis in Hungary.

In addition to the Security Council, denunciations of the anti-Israel remark had been issued by the European Union, the United States, Russia, Canada and other nations.

Annan plans to visit President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Monday and then go on to Egypt to see President Hosni Mubarak. In Cairo, he will deliver a lecture in honor of Nadia Younes, a prominent UN official killed in the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003.

In Saudi Arabia, Annan will meet Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and in Tunis, Annan will open a world summit on the Information Society.

He ends his trip in Pakistan where he will visit areas struck by the recent earthquake and meet President Pervez Musharraf.

Unrest in Ahvaz

Iranian police clashed with hundreds of Arab separatists rioting in Ahvaz, in oil-rich and Arab-dominated Khuzestan province, press reports said yesterday.

About 200 men, dressed in traditional Arabic clothes, marched toward the city center on Friday, where they were stopped by police. They started throwing stones and shouting “my blood may be poured for the Arab nation”.

The police arrested the instigators and several others carrying swords and frightening people at a crowded intersection, the reports said. Local officials were not available for confirmation.

Situated close to the border with British-occupied southern Iraq, Ahvaz has been hit by a wave of deadly unrest this year, including riots in April and a series of car bombings prior to Iran’s presidential election in June. Iran has pointed the finger of blame at Britain, which has troops based just across the border in Iraq and which has denied any involvement.