TEHERAN: CRO DEPUTY PARL. SPEAKER MEETS IRANI FOREIGN MINISTER

TEHERAN, April 16 (Hina) - Croatian deputy parliament speaker Zdravko Tomac, who is also the head of a Croatian delegation to Iran, on Monday held talks with Irani Foreign Minister Kamaal Harazi on bilateral relations, the situation in the region and human rights issues.#L# Tomac said Croatia extremely respected Irani President Mohamad Hatami, because he advocated "dialogue among civilisations", because, Tomac said "globalisation does not have to lead to the cloning of the western society." "We consider globalisation to be the struggle for human rights, but not by following one model, rather by respecting cultural, historical and religious differences," Tomac said. The fight against global terrorism must not lead to state terrorism, Tomac said. Hatami said that it was unfortunate that the strongest power in the world had different standpoint on the issue and it was persistent in spreading its military, economic and cultural power. He also commented on a possible condemning human rights' resolution of the UN against Iran. "We firmly believe that the state of human rights in Iran is incomparable to other countries in the region. In many countries the authorities were established after a coup had been carried out and parliaments don't even exist", Harazi said. In the UN commission, Croatia has been neutral until last year, Harazi said and told Tomac he hoped Tomac would use his parliamentary influence to change the government's standpoint. Tomac said Croatia advocated reality in political issues, adding that Croatia itself had experienced what double standards of the international community meant. "We are a European country, we want to join the European Union, but we will try not to follow the EU when it comes to double standards," Tomac said. Addressing the situation in the Near East, Harazi condemned Israel's policy and the US support, and added that Palestinians were going though a humanitarian catastrophe. (hina) it