Iranian officials refuse to "see" alcohol or shake female politician's hand

[Maciamo]

BBC News : Iranians in Belgian alcohol row

Iranian officials on a visit to Belgium have upset their hosts by trying to ban alcohol from the lunch table and refusing to shake women's hands.
Belgium's parliament speaker, Herman De Croo, decided to cancel a lunch rather than hosting a meal with no wine.

Strict Islamic teaching instructs Muslims to avoid looking at alcohol, as well as to avoid drinking it.

Belgian Senate president Anne-Marie Lizin later cancelled talks with the visitors over the handshake issue.

"We tried to find a solution, but they held fast to their position of not wanting to shake her hand," spokesman Patrick Peremans said.

The Senate said the meeting with the 12-strong delegation had been called off because of the "continued refusal" of Ms Lizin's counterpart to shake her hand.

This follows the election of a new ultra-conservative president in Iran lats week. No doubt that the Bush administration will rejoice at these new "religious" tensions with one of the other 3 countries on their Axis of Evil list.

[Frank D. White]

Bush would love an excuse to "NUKE" their nuclear program. The news here is making a big issue that the new leader was involved in the 70's hostage taking.

Frank

[misa.j]

The news here is making a big issue that the new leader was involved in the 70's hostage taking.

Frank

I heard about that.

It's pretty messed up.