Iran's ambassador to Italy has been removed from his post and some observers believe this was due to his failure to arrange any meetings with top Italian and Vatican officials for Mahmud Ahmadinejad during the Iranian president's visit to Rome earlier this month.
Ambassador Abolfazi Zohrevand's removal was confirmed Monday by Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini during his weekly press conference.
Although he gave no explanation for the move, the Iranian press had recently predicted it would happen because of the poor diplomatic results from Ahmadinejad's visit to the Italian capital for the world summit on food hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on June 3.
While in Rome, the Iranian president was not received by any Italian government official and only met with a number of Italian businessmen in a hotel on the sidelines of the FAO summit.
The Vatican also scotched any meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on the grounds that too many requests to see the pontiff has been made by leaders taking part in the summit.
Ambassador Zohrevand was to have met with Italian House Speaker Gianfranco Fini on June 9, but this encounter was shelved after Ahmadinejad returned to Iran and reiterated his prediction-vow that Israel would be ''wiped off the map''.
