TEHRAN -- Iran Monday lifted a ban on Al Jazeera imposed after the pan-Arab satellite television network aired a program deemed insulting to the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq.
"Following the relevant authorities' apology ... Al Jazeera's Arabic and English services can resume work in Iran," Iran's head of foreign media, Mohsen Moqaddaszadeh, said in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.
He said that he hoped that the Qatar-based network would seek to "strengthen unity among Muslims and avoid creating a rift among Muslims."
Iran suspended Al Jazeera's activities May 6 in response to a talk show called "Without Borders," whose host had questioned the legitimacy of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani's leadership in Iraq.
The network's journalists were banned from entering the Iranian parliament and were escorted out of a press conference of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he visited the United Arab Emirates.
Although a ban was never officially announced by the authorities, the channel apparently temporarily halted its activities in Iran in response to the problems.
The Iranian-born Sistani is Shiite Islam's leading cleric and commands huge respect in Iran as well as Iraq.
The channel was involved in a similar controversy in December 2005 when Iraqi Shiites protested after a talk-show guest accused Sistani of favoring the US occupation.
Al Jazeera's Tehran bureau was shut down by the authorities in April 2005 amid accusations of stirring up violence in its coverage of clashes in the ethnic Arab majority southwestern oil city of Ahvaz and only reopened 14 months later.
