Ahmadinejad to meet the Pope?

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will take part in the upcoming summit of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome this year for the first time, and "even an audience with the Pope seems possible. ... His visit to the Vatican would not be an official event. The Iranian president would neither be accompanied by dignitaries nor deliver public speeches. It is nonetheless undeniable that Ratzinger would come face to face with an awkward person who questions the existence of the Holocaust, and even of Israel itself, has close ties with Islamic fundamentalism and pursues nuclear goals. ... Ahmadinejad could use the meeting with the Pope to bolster his position at home, which since the election of his rival Ali Larijani as Speaker of the Iranian Parliament yesterday has become more precarious. Larijani will exert influence in all areas, including the nuclear sector, and has already threatened to revise Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."

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