September 25, 1998

Iran Drops Rushdie Death Threat, and Britain Renews Teheran Ties

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Salman Rushdie

Audio

Kamal Kharazzi, Foreign Minister of Iran

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By BARBARA CROSSETTE

NITED NATIONS -- On Thursday, the Iranian foreign minister publicly divorced his government from the death threat imposed on British author Salman Rushdie in 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Britain responded by restoring full diplomatic relations.

"The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention, nor is it going to take any action whatsoever to threaten the life of the author of 'The Satanic Verses' or anybody associated with his work, nor will it encourage or assist anybody to do so," the Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said in a statement that he read to reporters Thursday.

Kharrazi's remarks followed comments made in New York on Tuesday by Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, who told reporters that the Rushdie affair was "completely finished."

Standing next to Kharrazi, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he was "delighted" to hear Iran's position clarified and to know that the reward offered to anyone willing to kill Rushdie had been officially renounced.

Although an Iranian foundation continues to offer a $2.5 million bounty for the death of the year-old Indian-born British author, whose novel Kharrazi said still offended Iranians, the foreign minister said his government "dissociates itself from any reward that has been offered in this regard and does not support it."

A somewhat stunned Rushdie, interviewed by telephone in London, said Thursday night, "It's over."

"Until I went into the meeting with the British government, I wasn't sure," he said. "But they have told me emphatically that this is it. It's a breakthrough, and it's over. It's done. There is no longer any threat from the Iranian regime. The fatwa will be left to wither on the vine."

In addition to meeting with officials from the British Foreign Office, Rushdie spoke by telephone with Cook twice Thursday, and said he was convinced by the government's assurances. "I am given unequivocal and emphatic and definite information from the British government that it's true," he said.

Rushdie, who over the years often seemed on the verge of being released from his death sentence, only to have the Iranian government reiterate its commitment to the fatwa, or religious edict, said he wasn't sure how to handle the thought of freedom, and had not yet begun making arrangements, for instance, to travel in public without a team of Special Branch agents guarding him. It was not clear what his new security, if any, might entail.

"When you're so used to getting hard news -- and by that I mean bad news -- then news like this is almost unbelievable," he said. "It's like being told the cancer is gone. Well, the cancer's gone."

He added, "This has been an enduring and collective effort, and I want to thank all those people who helped, many of whom are in the United States, including the government of the United States."

Rushdie's book, which was first banned in India, in the fall of 1988, and prompted riots in Pakistan in early 1989 just before coming under Khomeini's edict, shocked Muslims in many countries, who deemed it blasphemous.

The book, written in Rushdie's most surreal style, includes a dream sequence with prostitutes impersonating the wives of Mohammed to improve their business. It also refers to Mohammed as Mahound, a demon in Christian morality plays. Rushdie, who was born a Muslim, was seen as a traitor to his faith.

After Khomeini called for Rushdie's death, the author was forced to seek haven in a series of safe houses in London and was guarded around the clock.

In recent years, Rushdie was able to travel abroad from time to time, but always under tight security. He has made several visits to New York, to promote books he has written since "The Satanic Verses" and to appear on television interviews and in small public gatherings.

Rushdie, the co-editor most recently of an anthology of South Asian writing titled "Mirrorworks," has never been able to return to his birthplace, Bombay, India, however, and has not ventured into Islamic countries, where emotions still run high.

At an impromptu news conference Thursday after meeting Kharrazi, Cook said, "Her Majesty's government recognized the fundamental role of Islam in Iranian life and understood and regretted the offense the book 'The Satanic Verses' has caused to Muslims in Iran and elsewhere in the world."

Cook said the understanding reached Thursday with Kharrazi would improve ties with the European Union as well as Britain. The British, who had been represented in Tehran by a charge d'affaires, said Thursday that they would raise the level of representation to ambassador.

"These assurances should make possible a much more constructive relationship between the United Kingdom and I believe the European Union, with Iran, and the opening of a new chapter in our relations," Cook said.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who received something of a rebuff from the Iranians this week, was less enthusiastic. The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and the taking of American hostages in 1979 during the revolution that brought Khomeini to power. Khomeini died in June 1989, a few months after the edict was issued.

"The question is, how will it be implemented," Albright said of Iran's pledge to distance itself from the bounty.