An Iranian deputy foreign minister says the recent visit by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Tehran was a failure to a previous decision by the European Union about Iran, reported PressTV.
"Foreign ministers of the European Union had made a decision that no one would make a visit to Iran. No EU minister travelled to Iran over the past two years," IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Affairs Hassan Qashqavi as saying on Sunday.
"However, the visit by German foreign minister was a violation that EU decision," he added.
German Foreign Minister Westerwelle arrived in the Iranian capital city of Tehran on Saturday. He held talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
The Iranian official added that the two sides could have also exchanged views on the case of two German nationals who have been detained in Iran.
Posing as reporters, two German nationals, Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch, were arrested in the Iranian city of Tabriz in October 2010 after they conducted an interview with the son of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a woman who has been convicted of complicity in the murder of her husband as well as adultery.
On Saturday, Iran's Revolution Court converted the initial 20-month prison sentence of Hellwig and Koch to fines of $50,000 each. Following their trial, the two Germans were released.
Qashqavi concluded that the "peaceful setting of ties between Iran and Germany has played an influential role in the visit."