In the English edition of El Pais the headlines screams out...

Khatami calls on Spain to block ears to those "with hearts full of hate."

This was the first visit to Spain by an Iranian president since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Besides meeting with Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Khatami also spoke before the Spanish Senate, where according to El Pais, he made some very interesting comments.

"We in Iran are experimenting with a democracy based on religion," Khatami explained through an interpreter, "what is certain - if this is successful - is that it will have great repercussions in all political currents of the Muslim world and will create a language for dialogue between Islam and West, something we increasingly need."

While his foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, highlighted that Iran is the only country in the region that has managed to establish something "so fundamental for democracy" as civil society, Khatami instisted that it is neccessary to find a middle ground between the madness of Muslim radicals and the intransigence of the United States.

"It cannot be permitted and it should not happen again that violence be used in the name of religion, in the same way military forces cannot be deployed around the world in the name of human rights and democracy," Khatami declared. "Condemning one group and then ignoring the cruelty and injustice of another will only create a vicious circle of murder being committed out of vengeance and vengeance resulting from murder."

In the Spanish edition, you learn a few other things...

"But beyond the image, the Iranian president is above all a man that knows western philosophies as well as those of Islam. It's from this formation, that he speaks of dialogue, of tolerance and respect. The same as Ibn Arabi, the mystic Hispano-Muslim in whose work Khatami specialized during his studies in Islamic Philosophy. Married to a teacher, and father of three children...he insists there is no such thing as just one Islam. "We have the Islam of the Taliban, and the Islam that we are experimenting in Iran, that has accepted some freedoms and democracy," at the same time asking that they be given time to adapt."

Question: Your government not only strongly condemned the (9-11) attacks, but also provided the U.S. discreet aid in Afghanistan. However, the President George W. Bush includes Iran in his "axis of evil." What happened for him to react thusly? Did you deny the U.S. any particular petition?

Answer: You will have to ask Mr Bush that question. What is being said with respect to Iran and Afghanistan shows that there isn't goodwill on the part of the United States with respect to Iran. We have been big victims of the taliban. For many years, two million suffering Afghans have lived in our country as guests. In an attempt to stop the drug traffickers from crossing Iran, and arriving to the youth of Europe, we have lost 3,000 of our best. The damage that the Taliban have caused us is much. There is no doubt that if Iran hadn't been willing, the situation in Afghanistan wouldn't be what it is now...