President Hassan Rouhani will visit Pope Francis on November 14, the Vatican announced Thursday in the latest sign of warm relations between the Holy See and the Islamic Republic.
Rouhani will call at the Vatican as part of an official trip to Italy, which has led European attempts to rebuild trade and investment ties with Tehran following the July nuclear deal, AFP reported.
Pope Francis received the Iranian vice president for family affairs Sahindokht Molaverdi in February and has been a prominent backer of the nuclear accord as a significant step toward stability in the region.
The last Iranian president to visit the Vatican was Mohamed Khatami, who held talks with Jean-Paul II in 1999 and subsequently attended the Polish pope’s funeral in 2005.
