|
[NOTE: Oh, come on! A
"meat-packing plant"?!:-)
-DG]
================================================= Word of the high-level visit came against the backdrop of recent news reports that the Islamic state planned to build a meat-packing and storage facility in a remote region of southern Colombia controlled by the country's leading Marxist rebel group. ___________________ ================================================= REUTERS Friday, 2 July 1999 Iranian officials to visit Colombia ----------------------------------- BOGOTA -- Amid reports that Tehran wants to invest in rebel-held territory, Colombia's state news agency ANCOL said on Friday that top Iranian officials will visit Colombia next week. ANCOL said the delegation led by Vice President Hassan Habibi will include Trade Minister Mohammad Shariat Madari and Agriculture Minister Isa Kalantari. The officials will arrive in Colombia on Monday and Habibi was set to hold talks with Colombian President Andres Pastrana on Tuesday, ANCOL said. Iranian embassy officials in Bogota were unavailable for comment. Word of the high-level visit came against the backdrop of recent news reports that the Islamic state planned to build a meat-packing and storage facility in a remote region of southern Colombia controlled by the country's leading Marxist rebel group. The plant would be located in the heart of a Switzerland-sized area of jungle and savanna that the government ceded control of in November 1998 to persuade the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to enter into peace talks. Formal negotiations between the government and FARC, which is the hemisphere's largest and oldest insurgent force and considered a ``terrorist'' organisation by the U.S. State Department, were scheduled to get under way next Wednesday. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited |
