Iranian President will touch down at BIA

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad will touch down at Bandaranaike International Airport tomorrow evening in a special flight to be greeted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the foot of the gangway.
Ahmadinejad will be accompanied by an Iranian delegation including Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Commerce Minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi. He will be flown to Colombo by helicopter and will pay a courtesy call on President Rajapksa tomorrow night, before attending the official banquet.
On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad will meet religious dignitaries and community leaders, led by Western Province Governor Alavi Moulana. Later that morning, he will visit the Sapugaskanda oil refinery and unveil a commemorative plaque. Iran had assisted in the construction of the refinery decades ago. He will leave for Uma Oya by chopper where President Ahmadinejad and President Rajapaksa will jointly unveil another commemorative plaque to inaugurate the power project. He is later expected to deliver an address before leaving directly for BIA. He departs the country around 1.30 pm.
Asked for a comment on the visit, US Embassy Spokesman Terry White cited a response made at a US State Department press briefing last week to a question about Ahmadinejad’s visit to India.
“It’s really upto every country to determine how it’s going to organise its bilateral relations,” he said. “Many countries, including some of our strong allies in Europe, have diplomatic relations with Iran and it’s up to them to determine how best to manage them.”