THE new Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen has become a star of Middle Eastern television, radio and press.

Coun Karimeh Foster, who has represented the Whitehall ward of Darwen as a Lib Dem since 1992, has featured on bulletins on TV stations including Al Jazeera and in daily newspaper Addustour in her homeland of Jordan, since taking the chains of office in May.

News of the 59-year-old’s new appointment hit the headlines when Coun Foster’s brother, who still lives in Jordan, told a journalist neighbour.

Coun Foster said: “A friend who lives in Lebanon called me to say he’d seen the news, and since then, I’ve had hundreds of friends from across the world contact me about it, some of them I haven’t spoken to for 40 years.

“I haven’t seen any of the news items, but I think it’s nice. I think it’s a celebration of the fact that a Jordanian can come to live in England and can take up a post like this. It is good advertising for them.

“There is a belief that the British are racist, but in my experience, if you work hard and show you are committed to the community, then there is no problem.

“My ward is mainly non-ethnic, and I have had no problems.

"We need to stop being divided and recognise we are all citizens of the borough and need to work together.”

Coun Foster has also been contacted by Jordanian reporters and is featured on the website of the British Embassy in Amman.

She added: “My aim has always been to make Blackburn with Darwen known internationally, and expand business and education links.

“It is also important to promote Jordan and for people to know that there are a lot of educated people in Jordan. I am a big believer in it.”

Coun Foster, a Christian Palestinian, was born in Bethlehem but moved to Jordan before the Six-Day War in 1967.

In her 20s she spent eight years in the Jordanian military as a second lieutenant, then was sent to a college in Kingston-upon-Thames to study a course in casualty and administration.

It was there she met David Foster, a native of Darwen, whose brother was a tutor at Brompton Hospital.

Karimeh and David married, and she settled in Darwen.