Iran on Thursday denied reports a minister exchanged a rare handshake with his Israeli counterpart at a tourism fair in Spain, a state news agency said on Thursday.
The Israeli and Iranian tourism ministers were introduced at a reception hosted by the Spanish king in Madrid and shook hands, a spokesman for Israel's Tourism Minister Stas Mezeshnikov said earlier.
Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization denied any such gesture had been made, ISNA news agency reported.
"Rumors with certain aims"
"The rumor, with certain aims, about a meeting between Iranian and the occupying regime's (Israeli) officials is a baseless rumor based on the imagination of an ill-minded British media," said the statement carried by ISNA.
"We stress again that Islamic Republic of Iran will never acknowledge a state under the name of Israel and considers permanent confrontation with such a regime to be its duty," it said.
"We are both from the same region and tourism can serve as a bridge for dialogue and to wider understanding," Israel's Tourism Minister Stas Mezeshnikov told his Iranian counterpart, his spokesman, Amnon Lieberman earlier said.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stirred anger by publicly questioning whether the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed across Europe, had indeed occurred.
Iran and Israel have been enemies since the 1979 Islamic revolution when Tehran cut ties. Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's destruction.
Israel, which is thought to possess an undeclared nuclear arsenal, has urged stronger international sanctions against Iran's nuclear energy program.
The United States and its allies fear the program is aimed at building an atomic bomb. Tehran denies this saying it is only interested in creating electricity.
Mezeshnikov, member of an ultranationalist Israeli party, was quoted further telling the Iranian minister he identified as Hamid Baqaie: "The Israeli people see the Iranian people as a friend, but Iran must stop its wild incitement against Israel and return to the family of nations."
Invitation to Iran
I believe the day will come when an Israeli minister, as well as Israeli citizens, will be able to visit and enjoy Iran
Separately, another senior Iranian official in charge of Tehran's booth at the Fitur tourist fair walked over to Mezeshnikov who had stopped by Iran's display, and invited him to visit the Islamic republic, Lieberman said.
"We have some wonderful natural and cultural sites that you are welcome to come and see," the Iranian, who wasn't further identified, told Mezeshnikov, the Israeli spokesman added.
Misezhnikov replied, "I believe the day will come when an Israeli minister, as well as Israeli citizens, will be able to visit and enjoy Iran."
But representatives running the Syrian booth completely ignored the Israeli delegation, which also visited the Jordanian, Palestinian, Moroccan and Egyptian stations at Madird tourist fair.
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