Iran Envoy Demands Kohl Apology for TV Show Mocking Khomeini

The Iranian ambassador to Bonn demanded Friday that West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl apologize to the Iranian government for a television comedy that poked fun at the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Ambassador Djavid Salari said during a news conference at the Iranian Embassy that Muslims around the world have been offended by the comedy program shown last Sunday on the ARD television network.

The program used photographic tricks to make it appear as if women were throwing their underwear at the feet of Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader, a fundamentalist Shia Muslim.

“In the Islamic world it is unthinkable that the religious head of state of the Muslims should be made fun of,” said Salari, speaking in German.

2 Envoys Expelled

Iran has ordered two West German diplomats expelled because of the television broadcast.

A senior Foreign Ministry official, Juergen Moellemann, expressed West Germany’s “regrets” over the incident earlier this week, but told the Iranians that the West German government has no control over the media.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Lower Saxony state police said Rudi Carrell, the host of the show that televised the Khomeini satire, and his family, were under police protection after he received threatening telephone calls over the program. Carrell has apologized to the Iranians, saying his show’s parodies of the news were not intended to cause offense.

Apology Demanded

Salari said the conciliatory gestures exhibited so far were not enough. “Our people expect that the (West German) government take concrete measures. An apology would make things easier,” he said.

Asked who should do the apologizing, Salari replied, “The chancellor.”

Government spokesman Friedhelm Ost later said the government cannot apologize for the show. “We have said we regret it. But we cannot apologize for something that we have not done.”