New York – Iran’s president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented “an ever-increasing global hatred” of the U.S. government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it didn’t resolve questions about Tehran’s suspect nuclear program.
“This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort,” Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It isn’t addressing the issues that we’re dealing with in a concrete way.” Rice’s comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S.
Embassy in Tehran.
The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran’s nuclear intentions, asking why “any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime.” Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
“Would not your administration’s political and economic standing have been stronger?” the letter said. “And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever- increasing global hatred of the American government? Ahmadinejad today called his letter “words and opinions of the Iranian nation” aimed at finding a “way out of problems” facing humanity, according to the official Iranian news agency. He spoke briefly before boarding a plane for Indonesia, where he was to attend a summit of developing nations.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator called the surprise letter a new “diplomatic opening” between the two countries, but Rice said it failed to resolve the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program – the focus of intense U.N. Security Council debate this week. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Bush had been briefed on the letter, which the White House received Monday through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.
“There’s nothing in here that would suggest that we’re on any different course than we were before we got the letter,” Rice said.
Even though the letter hardly touched on nuclear issues, officials said it appeared timed with a push by the United States and its European allies for a Security Council vote to restrain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Both China and Russia are opposed to leveling sanctions against Iran and the letter could provide them support.
Rice, who said she expected no quick action on sanctions, met privately Monday night with foreign ministers from the other permanent members of the council.
Her spokesman gave no details of the substance of the discussions, but described the talks as strategic and not focused on specific steps.
The United States is concerned that Iran’s program is a cover for making nuclear weapons, while Iran contends it has the right to process uranium as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity.
In the letter, Ahmadinejad says that people around the world have lost faith in international institutions and questions whether the Bush administration has covered up some evidence surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.
Liberalism and Western-style democracy “have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity,” said the letter, obtained late Monday by The Associated Press.
“Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems,” it read.
Ahmadinejad also suggests that Bush should look inward, saying there was an increasing hatred worldwide of the United States, and that history shows how “repressive and cruel governments do not survive.” “How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people’s houses destroyed over their heads? Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? Do you think present policies can continue?” Most of Iran’s newspapers devoted their front pages to Ahmadinejad’s message today.
“Ahmadinejad’s letter, an initiative in global diplomacy,” read a headline in the hard-line daily Resalat.
The moderate daily Shargh, or East, said the message may open a new page in relations with the United States.
But a conservative lawmaker lambasted Ahmadinejad for failing to consult parliament before he sent the letter.
“This message is the outcome of a series of taboo-breaking behaviors in Iran’s foreign policy. … That the parliament is not aware of (the contents of the) letter is questionable,” Hashmatollah Falahatpisheh told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state-run radio today.
