No clash of civilisations - Straw

Jack Straw has called for continuing EU co-operation with Iran

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said there is no fundamental difference between the Islamic world and the West.

He told the United Nations Assembly, meeting in New York, that Arab peoples developed the mathematical foundations on which the digital world is based.

He said only "terrorists and the preachers of hate" wanted people "to believe that Islam and the West are fundamentally different".

Theirs was a "philosophy of mistrust and despair", which he rejected.

The threat from terrorists and the political instability they bring is made worse by the easy availability of weapons in what has become an anarchic, unregulated trade Jack Straw

However, Mr Straw said poor economic prospects and stunted political freedoms had led to widespread disillusionment among young and talented Muslims.

And he said Arab nations were now behind in the technological revolution.

"The answer however does not lie in easy stereotypes about some clash of civilisations," he added.

EU-Iran relationship

He also pointed out that the EU, currently under UK presidency, had taken a leading role in negotiating with Iran.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had earlier told the same UN meeting that Iran threatened the effectiveness of global efforts to contain nuclear non-proliferation.

But Mr Straw said the UK, France and Germany had been involved in talks with Tehran and that the EU wanted relations with Iran to be built on cooperation and respect.

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"We've made detailed proposals for the relationship between the EU and Iran to be based on cooperation and respect for international norms and treaties," he said.

Mr Straw said the EU proposals "envisage a high-level, long-term political and security framework" with Iran.

Such a set-up would see the two sides "work together in political, economic and scientific and technological areas - including the civil nuclear field", he added.

In return Iran would be expected to provide guarantees about its intentions and capabilities concerning nuclear weapons.

Weapons warning

Mr Straw also said the UN should adopt an Arms Trade Treaty as a means of tackling international terrorism and political instability.

"The threat from terrorists and the political instability they bring is made worse by the easy availability of weapons in what has become an anarchic, unregulated trade," he said.

"These same weapons fuelled the killings in Rwanda and Bosnia a decade ago and the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur today."

In a written statement to the UN on behalf on the EU, he also said there must be action to show the lessons from acts of genocide around the world in the past 10 years had been learned.