Former Iranian president Mohamed Khatami, who was recently feted as a “moderate” on a tour of US and British universities, and who gave an autograph to John F. Kerry in Davos, boasted to the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi that Iran’s abduction of 15 British sailors is a demonstration of the strength of the Islamic world.

Former Iranian President Mohamed Khatami told the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi during his visit to Egypt that “George Bush is the tyrant of our age, and history will remember him as a rare variety of murderer of children and women.”

On Iran’s abduction of the 15 British servicemen, he said: “Anyone who saw this action as inappropriate has become accustomed to seeing the Islamic and Arab world as weak, as not defending itself from harm, and as having borders that are wide open… The behavior of the U.S. and of its allies is very barbaric, and they want the Arab and Islamic world to remain weak forever.”

He also noted that “Iran’s relations with Hamas and Hizbullah are eternal.”