TEHRAN Head of Iranian Judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said on Tuesday that the Islamic states should consider setting up an international Islamic court.

In a meeting with the Yemeni Ambassador to Iran Abdullah Ali al-Razi, Shahroudi said that the Islamic states, the fraternal nations should have an international court of justice for themselves.

He said that since the Western international fora do not pay heed to the interests of the Islamic and developing countries, the Islamic states should establish an Islamic international court in conformity with Islamic penal code.

The Islamic nations are constantly at loggerheads with the Western human rights organizations over the penal code in the Islamic states.

The Western human rights standards regard the Islamic states penal code as violation of human rights whereas, the Islamic states believe that they should promote the Islamic Sharia law.

Shahroudi said that Tehran and San'a have longstanding friendship and called for boosting cultural, economic and judicial cooperation between the two countries.

He said that the Iranian Judiciary is keen on judicial cooperation with Yemen.

The Yemeni ambassador said that Iran-Yemen relations has undergone good progress since a visit to Tehran of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in April 17-19, 2000.

(IRNA)