Mixed reception awaits Straw on historic mission

Jack Straw will set out today on the formidably delicate task of soliciting Iran's support for the American and British-led war against terrorism when he becomes the first British Foreign Secretary to meet the country's leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Hours before he was due to fly to Tehran early today, the tensions generated by the visit among Iran's complex political and religious factions was underlined when police arrested at least 30 people after about 50 demonstrated outside the British embassy compound chanting: "Death to America, Death to Britain."

Although Mr Straw's visit was planned as the latest step in the very gradual unfreezing of relations since 1990, it was brought suddenly forward after President Mohammad Khatami outspokenly condemned the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Approval for the visit to proceed was agreed after Tony Blair and President Khatami spoke on the telephone last Thursday. Mr Straw's meetings with the President and Dr Kamal Kharrazi, Iran's experienced Foreign Minister, will certainly be dominated by the consequences of the September 11 outrage, and include talks on military action in Afghanistan.

Almost two million Afghan refugees live in Iran. While Iran has closed its border with its neighbour, its interior ministry says it has set up eight camps just inside Afghanistan to cope with up to 200,000 more refugees.

Dr Kharrazi has been at pains to dismiss suggestions that Mr Straw is bringing a message from President George Bush. But the British are certainly better placed to secure any tacit help for the coalition than America, which imposes a stringent economic embargo on Iran and has had no diplomatic representation since Revolutionary Guards occupied its embassy in 1979.

Although Western diplomats believe the auspices for improved relations with Iran are better than at any time since the Revolution, there are clear, if hardly unexpected, signs that much of conservative religious opinion, which looks to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ranges from the deeply suspicious to the overtly hostile. "The British can never be in the same united front as us against terrorism," the hardline newspaper Jomhuri Ye-Aslami insisted yesterday, reflecting opposition to US military action in the region.

While some other newspapers gave the visit a markedly warmer welcome – and some observers saw the swift police action against demonstrators as evidence of the government's determination to improve relations with Britain – there will be a number of difficult issues in today's talks, even for reformists.

The government has stressed it wants to see any action against Osama bin Laden justified by evidence and taken under the auspices of the United Nations.

More sensitive still, Mr Straw is likely to raise Iran's continued support for the Palestinian organisations Hammas and Islamic Jihad, which is on the list of organisations proscribed under the terms of the British terrorism Bill he introduced last year. (More welcome in Tehran, the Bill also proscribes the Iraqi supported Iranian dissident terrorist group MEK).

The Foreign Secretary may also voice worries about Iran's successful testing of a Shahab III medium-range ballistic missile last year.

The Iranian government, however, is adamant that the Palestinian groups – which it is unapologetically open about supporting – are legitimate organisations fighting for the Palestinians and are not remotely comparable to the perpetrators of the mass slaughter of civilians in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania two weeks ago today.

That said, there are also hopeful signs for the talks in which Mr Straw will also be seeking advice and information from the Iranians about the Taliban, to which Iran is deeply hostile. A city centre mural still commemorates the Taliban's murder of Iranian diplomats and one journalist at the Iranian consulate at Mazar-I-Sharif. More immediately, the Taliban are seen in Iran as the source not only of its refugee problem but also of worldwide drug trafficking through Iran's south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan. Despite official denials, the Iranians have given tacitly ack-nowledged support for the Northern Alliance forces inside Afghanistan, according to Western diplomatic sources.

At the same time Mr Straw – who yesterday warned for the first time that military action would probably bring casualties – is likely to stress his determination to seek a substantive restart to the Middle East peace process. The unspoken implication is that Britain will apply increasing pressure on Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, to negotiate in earnest.

The British are thought to have discussed with America the prospects for round-table talks of the sort convened by President Bush's father in 1991, after the Gulf War.