DOHA - Iran's decision to close the Tehran bureau of Al-Jazeera television has once again put the station in the line of fire within the region, where it remains as controversial as it is popular.
"We adopt an open-door policy and one of dialogue with all parties," Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout told AFP on Tuesday, a day after Iran ordered the station's temporary closure for alleged incitement.
"We continue to cover events in all important areas," he said, adding however that Tehran's decision "represents an obstacle for Al-Jazeera to carry out its mission as it should."
"But this will not stop us from working to cover important events for viewers," said Ballout.
The chief editor of the Qatar-based satellite channel, Ahmed al-Sheikh, expressed surprise at the Iranian government's action.
"I don't know what crime we have committed," he said.
The Iranian government's action followed angry complaints from MPs against Al-Jazeera, accused of portraying violence in the southwestern province of Khuzestan last week as separatist unrest by Iran's Arab minority.
"We repeatedly broadcast the Iranian government's point of view on the Ahvaz crisis. Some would consider that more important than the place reserved for the opposition," he said.
"We reported what international agencies gave on the letter of a senior Iranian official calling to change the ethnic composition of the Ahwaz province. We also reported the Iranian government's denial (of the letter)," Sheikh said.
A representative of the London-based Popular Democratic Front of Ahvazi Arabs in Iran, quoted by Al-Jazeera, said the group had called for peaceful demonstrations in Khuzestan "to mark 80 years of Iranian occupation" but the authorities had decided to use military force.
Iranians of Arab descent form the majority in the province's main city Ahvaz but just three percent of Iran's population as a whole.
On Monday, Al-Jazeera's management expressed "regret" at what it described as a "surprising and unjustified" action.
It called for a change of heart from Tehran but insisted that it would maintain its "editorial policy of airing the full range of opinions and covering current affairs in Iran objectively and fairly."
Launched in November 1996, the channel is highly popular among Arab viewers but has irked many governments in the region for tackling political, social and at times sexual issues, previously regarded as taboo.
Branded a "channel of terrorism" by Iraq's outgoing defence minister Hazem Shaalan, Al-Jazeera has been banned from reporting in Iraq since August.
In November 2002, Kuwait closed down Al-Jazeera's office for taking a "hostile" stand against the emirate and for security reasons.
The channel has still not been able to open a bureau in Saudi Arabia or Tunisia while only opening one in Bahrain three months ago.
The station, accused by Washington of bias and stoking anti-US sentiment, first attracted international attention through its coverage of the US military campaign in Afghanistan and broadcasting videotaped statements of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
04/19/2005 14:18 GMT