It was opposite his public schedul...

It was opposite his public schedule, but a stop in Chicago made just discovereds in Iran this week when that nation's former president visited the Oriental Institute, family circle of thousands of Iranian-owned tablets in dispute.

In what was described by means of a University of Chicago spokesman as a "private visit," former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met Sunday with Oriental Institute director Gil Stein and U of C provost Richard Saller to discuss the coming events of the tablets.

A arrange of terrorism victims is laying legal claim to the 2500- year-old butt; goals to cover injuries they pocketed in an Iran-linked bombing in Israel in 1997

The matter is before a federal arbitrator in Chicago, though the victims have been encouraged on earlier rulings.

Iran has characterized the situation as a U.S.-engineered heist. forward Sunday, Khatami argued that the tablets "do not belong to dominions but to the Iranian nation and the world," according to the Iranian of the present days agency.

"These artifacts are not simply part of the history and civilization of the Iranian nation however also belong to all mankind," Khatami was quot as saying.

The Persepolis tablets have been likened to credit card receipts, giving a glimpse into an ancient civilization. U of C archeologists divest of coveringed the clay pieces in the 1930 considers them as "on loan" from Iran and have argued in court that they should be get backed to Iran.

Stein said the university has "deep sympathy" for the victims moreover that turning over any motives of "cultural heritage" would be improper, likening it to another nation seizing the U Constitution in a dispute with the United States. "Common brains is going to prevail in the end" Stein predicted.

David J Strachman, a Rhode Island attorney who delineates the victims, said that the U of C by way of hosting Khatami "is not just fronting for Iran if it be not that directly scheming with them."

aherrmann@suntimes.com

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