GENEVA (AFP) — Negotiators said Friday that they had agreed on a declaration for a UN anti-racism conference, shrugging off fears that the arrival of Iran's president could disrupt the meeting.
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has stirred outrage by repeatedly calling the Holocaust a "myth" and with anti-Israel comments, is the only prominent head of state so far scheduled to attend the Durban Review Conference on Monday.
News of his attendance had sparked renewed fears that the five-day meeting, which begins in Geneva on Monday, could end in acrimony -- like the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, eight years ago.
The United States and Israel walked out of the 2001 conference, amid charges it had become a forum for anti-Semitism.
A similar row had marred negotiations in recent months to draw up the final declaration at the Geneva meeting -- which is due to take stock of progress in fighting racism and xenophobia since Durban -- prompting boycott threats by some Western states.
But officials and human rights groups said Friday that Western and most Muslim states have managed to iron out the most controversial issues, relating to religious discrimination, Israel and the Middle East.
"We have reached an agreement to submit the draft text for adoption," a EU diplomat told AFP.
He added that the text is "perfectly acceptable for the European Union."
Meanwhile, a Latin American diplomat added that what was significant was the "feeling that a consensus has been reached.
"It is the feeling that prevails today. The ambiance is very positive."
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay confirmed the compromise.
"I feel very certain that because this was so well deliberated by all groups that this would have an easy passage through the conference," Pillay told journalists.
Tehran earlier wanted to transfer a standalone reference to the Holocaust in the draft text into a section on injustices of the past, a demand that Europeans regarded as unacceptable.
Given the Iranian president's previous hardline statements, a European diplomat said earlier that they were racing "against the clock" to find a consensus ahead of his arrival.
Other diplomats said that while Ahmadinejad's attendance would divert public attention, he was unlikely to derail negotiations on a renewed international pledge to fight racism.
"In other UN meetings, some countries did not agree on everything but that does not prevent their heads of states from attending," said an Asian diplomat. "We should not prejudge the Iranian president's participation."
Human Rights Watch also played down the Iranian impact on Friday.
"There is a broad consensus of nations coming forward for this review conference," said Julie de Rivero, advocacy director for the rights group in Geneva.
"There may be isolated attempts to change things, but they remain that and I don't think they will have an influence," she told journalists.
Gerald Steinberg, executive director of pro-Israel lobby group NGO Monitor, also believed the Iranian president was unlikely to threaten the conference's outcome.
But he noted: "If Ahmadinejad is here, it will turn the whole thing into a circus."
European Union states would decide late Friday if they would take part, French Secretary of State Rama Yade said in Paris.
The United States has also set conditions on re-joining the anti-racism conference.
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