Ahmadinejad sends letter to Bush

[Sanjuro]

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to the U.S. President George W. Bush proposing “new solutions” to ease tensions between the two countries, BBC reported.

"President Ahmadinejad has written a letter to George Bush, which is to be handed to the Swiss embassy," which represents the U.S. interests in Iran, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

"In this letter, while analyzing the world situation and finding the roots of the problems, he has proposed new ways for getting out of the existing vulnerable world situation," Elham added.

The spokesman didn’t say whether the letter mentioned the nuclear standoff.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the ISNA news agency that "once the American president has received the letter, its content will be made public".

Correspondents say whatever is the content of the letter, it is significant because it is the first letter from an Iranian President to an American leader since Washington and Tehran cut off diplomatic ties in 1980.

The historic move comes amid U.S. calls for sanctions and the threat of military action against Tehran over its nuclear program.

Washington accuses Iran of seeking to build atomic weapons, a charge strongly denied by the Islamic Republic.

Last week, the U.S. and its European allies circulated a draft resolution at the UN Security Council demanding Iran to halt uranium enrichment or face “further action”.

On Sunday, Iran’s parliament sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan threatening to quit the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty allowing for snap inspections of Tehran’s nuclear sites if the U.S. continued pressuring the country to freeze uranium enrichment.

Foreign Ministers of the council members plus Germany will meet in New York tonight to discuss how to handle Iran’s nuclear program.

Correspondents say sending a letter to Bush is a very bold step by Ahmadinejad, and the timing is key, as the West is trying to persuade Russia and China to support tough action against Iran.

They add that Ahmadinejad is reinforcing the point that he is ready to negotiate with anyone, including the American president, to avoid conflict over the nuclear dispute.

The U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Iran in April 1980 following the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

* Iran rallies support among neighbors

Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator arrived in Turkey on Monday as part of Tehran’s efforts to rally support among its neighbors amid the nuclear standoff with the West.

Ali Larijani’s visit to Turkey comes a few days after he met with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, where he tried to soothe the Gulf neighbors’ fears about Tehran’s nuclear program and seek their intervention to ease international pressure.

Larijani is due to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Yigit Alpogan, head of the National Security Council.

NATO member Turkey, which shares a border with Iran, has so far taken a moderate approach, defending Tehran’s right to develop a peaceful nuclear program but also demanding it to “be transparent.”

Turkey is home to a sprawling air base that U.S. troops might use if there was a U.S. attack against Iran. However, Ankara didn’t allow Washington to use Incirlik air base for attacks on Iraq.

Last month, Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said after his visit to Kuwait that Gulf states would not allow U.S. forces in the Gulf to use their territories to attack the Islamic Republic.

Source

I hope this warmonger Bush will listen to these new solutions.

[__Kratos__]

Warmonger?

Yeah, I guess we're not pushing talks (just not with directly us but through our allies) or looking at the UN to help.

Nope, we just must have B-52 bombers right now, blowing up Iran, right? I mean, gosh! America can't push anything forward but a bullet, right?! Bloody Americans!

[Sanjuro]

Warmonger?

Yeah, I guess we're not pushing talks (just not with directly us but through our allies) or looking at the UN to help.

Nope, we just must have B-52 bombers right now, blowing up Iran, right? I mean, gosh! America can't push anything forward but a bullet, right?! Bloody Americans!

Who recently was going around europe and begging for support for Iran war? (Rice)

And cut the crap Kratos, US is only one (except Israel) who is pushing for this war while everyone else says "wait a minute.....".

[Watzel]

Sanjuro, I agree with you. US should not fight Iran. We should develop our alternative fuel program and then we really could care less what Iran does or says.

I just heard that an old Coke bottling company that has sat dormant for ten years is going to be converted to an Ethanol producing factory.

And that is just a start. Hybrid car sales have gone up 400% in the US. ALso, people are now, finally, starting to cut back on driving. Flex fuel vehicles are have been produced in some cars since 2002 and are going to soon be all cars.

So Iran can really do what they want now. But later they won't matter...to anyone in the world.

[PLO]

yeah your oil consumption is still increasing eh. Though it is good to see some people are actually wising up and not buying a shiny new SUV.

[__Kratos__]

yeah your oil consumption is still increasing eh. Though it is good to see some people are actually wising up and not buying a shiny new SUV.

SUV sales have dropped so low that companies are offering to pay for something like 60 tanks of gas for buyers plus other rebates.

When in reality the average American doesn't need an SUV, Full size 4x4 pick up truck or any other full size utility vechile.

We should impose a new "sin" tax on buyers of SUV that cannot provide reasonable excuse to buy such a vechile. Drive people away from them. I can't understand a driver that choose that type of vechile for fun has the right to complain at all. Dumb idiots should have thought before hand that 14 miles per a gallon wasn't a good thing. Duh?!

Also put some pressure on car manufactors to increase miles per gallon to help cut back. It's absurd to think that a car today will only get 24 miles per a gallon.

Chavez did something today that I actually admired, he's imposing a new tax on those bloody oil companies that will nearly double the current 17% to 33% in taxes bringing in over 800 million extra dollars.

It's a free market but when the people are suffering at 3 bucks a gallon while the fat cat oil ceo's and higher ups are making upon billions, there is something fishy in that sceme. They said last year they were barely making it till the numbers came out. I mean...what the hell?

[/rant]

[Celumnaz]

Kinda feels similar to an Arafat-esque tactic. Dang I hated Arafat.

Love that pic of Bush!!! lol

Wasn't on the site linked, guess it's your own personal pic?

Went and googled the pres of Iran for pics. Nobody makes as good a monkey image as Bush though... cause making fun of people's looks is cool.

Remember this?

[shikon1]

And cut the crap Kratos, US is only one (except Israel) who is pushing for this war while everyone else says "wait a minute.....".

no? france and germany(i think) accually were the ones who drew up the ultimatum for iran just recently

really the only ones that are saying "wait a minute" are russia and china, thier really they only oppositioin to the document

its good to see irans president talking about peace rather than "U.S. SHALL PERISH" and stuff like that hopfullly we can avoid war

Edited May 8, 2006 by shikon1

[__Kratos__]

no? france and germany(i think) accually were the ones who drew up the ultimatum for iran just recently

really the only ones that are saying "wait a minute" are russia and china, thier really they only oppositioin to the document

its good to see irans president talking about peace rather than "U.S. SHALL PERISH" and stuff like that hopfullly we can avoid war

France and Britian I believe.

Russia and China are against it beause they have deals with Iran, and they're looking out for number 1 right now. A nuclear Iran doesn't affect them as much as the west.

He talks peace but it's pretty fishy.

[Sanjuro]

Now its in cnn: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/08/...tter/index.html

Wasn't on the site linked, guess it's your own personal pic?

I googled it.

[Watzel]

He just stalling so he can have more time to build nukes.

[__Kratos__]

Oh, yeah...Here's a guy of peace talking...

Update: Iran letter blasts Bush, democracy

NEW YORK (AP) -- 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 told 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 September 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 on Tuesday 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 9/11 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 on Tuesday.

"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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh yeah, he's looking for peace alright.

[SoulMatrix]

And Kratos how do you know he aint looking for peace? Some of the stuff he said in the Letter is true. I like what he said to.

"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?"

Yea I think we can say Bush really doesn't care about whats goin on in the world. Just keep sending soldiers over there to break into houses kill innocent victims, lose their lives, continue watching civilians die. I think hes pleased with his Policies. I really hope there can be peace. And yes I do think Bush has been lying about 9/11 and the Iraq War. Unfortunetly many Americans just wanna go for the ride and believe anything that comes out of the Government's or Admin's Mouth. Credibility Gap anyone?

[Watzel]

Can anyone associate the President of Iran with the number 666? I think he is the devil incarnate.

[__Kratos__]

Can anyone associate the President of Iran with the number 666? I think he is the devil incarnate.

Perhaps...

[Watzel]

Oh man, I got a good laugh out of that reply. Thanks Kratos!

[Fluffybunny]

I dislike bush, and anyone who has been here for a while knows that, but I still find it hillarious that everyone condemns bush for his tactics(fair enough), but everyone seems to conveniently forget the horrible things that the iranian leadership does. Maybe once Israel is wiped off of the map and iran has nukes landing in the Tel Aviv folks will understand the situation.

I agree that this situation should be dealt with in discussion and not war, but looking at how insane the leadership of iran is, I doubt that will happen. With the constant changes in what is coming from the leadership on a daily basis they are making themselves appear less stable as the days go by.

I wish that there was open communication between the two countries; bush is an idiot and should stay out of it, but there are plenty of people that have an undertsanding of the iranian leadership and culture that could work towards a peaceful resolution with a series of open talks. Not having communication is a mistake on many levels.

[RedEyeJedi]

Oh yeah, he's looking for peace alright.

OMG! What are you guys talking about?? What, as Soul Matrix, said shows any sign of anything but regret for the current world situation?

You guys just like the US administration are hell bent on a course. That 'devil in a blue dress' saying that the letter doesn't change anything and therefore implying their military course has not been deterred.

Watzel what have you seen to make you think Ahmadinejad is crazy?!! I personally haven't seen anything. If you are referring to 'Israel wiped off the map'. We all know that was spun as propaganda. He disagrees with the state of Israel being built on land stolen from Palestinians.

The US want war with Iran and as I said in 2002 they will have it. Unless by some miracle the people stop the most dangerous regime on Earth. BushCo.

Edited May 9, 2006 by RedEyeJedi

[Sanjuro]

Details of the letter sent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the U.S. President George W. Bush have emerged, BBC reported.

In the 18-page letter, written in English and sent Monday through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, Ahmadinejad strongly criticized the United States over Iraq War.

"On the pretext of the existence of WMDs [weapons of mass destruction], this great tragedy [the U.S. invasion of Iraq] came to engulf both the peoples of the occupied and the occupying country,” Reuters news agency quoted the letter as saying.

"Lies were told in the Iraqi matter… What was the result? I have no doubt that telling lies is reprehensible in any culture, and you do not like to be lied to," Ahmadinejad said.

The Iranian President also questioned the creation of Israel, asking "how can this phenomenon be rationalized or explained?”.

In an apparent reference to Tehran’s nuclear program, Ahmadinejad asked: "Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a 'threat to the Zionist [israel] regime'? Is not scientific R&D [research and development] one of the basic rights of nations?"

In another part of the letter, the Iranian President also accused Washington of hiding elements of the truth about the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities?" he asks.

Ahmadinejad ended the letter by urging Bush to return to religious principles.

"We increasingly see that people around the world are flocking towards a main focal point - that is the Almighty God.

"My question for you is, 'Do you not want to join them?'"

Although Iranian officials hailed the letter, the first from an Iranian President to a U.S. leader since the Iran’s 1979 revolution, as a major diplomatic initiative, senior U.S. officials dismissed it as proposing nothing new.

"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

"It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way,” she added.

The letter was sent as foreign ministers of world powers met in New York for talks on the Iranian nuclear dispute.

But after the three-hour meeting, the ministers failed to reach an agreement on a unified position on how to tackle the Iranian nuclear program.

A senior U.S. official told Reuters that Ahmadinejad’s letter didn’t prompt calls from the other powers for Washington to change its tough policy or to hold direct talks with Iran.

Asked about the letter, Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday: "We will wait to see the reaction of the recipient and we will act based on the reaction."

S

Well, lets see the reaction.

LETTER

Edited May 9, 2006 by Sanjuro

[__Kratos__]

You have a topic here: Link

Not to mention I posted the story about the letter in there earlier.

[RedEyeJedi]

You have a topic here: Link

Not to mention I posted the story about the letter in there earlier.

Stop complaining and read it. This is the actual letter and i guess the truth hurts, eh?

I'll still haven't read it yet, but I'm feeling positive vibes from reading the beginning.

Sending it to the French - awesome!

By the way for those that don't know PBUH, means 'Peace Be Upon Him'

Edited May 9, 2006 by RedEyeJedi

[__Kratos__]

Stop complaining and read it. This is the actual letter and i guess the truth hurts, eh?

I'll still haven't read it yet, but I'm feeling positive vibes from reading the beginning.

Sending it to the French - awesome!

Complaining? double threads are annoying as hell.

Truth? He's just going on with his anti-american remarks, big deal. America is so backwards to Iran...oh.. yeah...because we don't have Islamic law and we let our woman have freedoms. Oh the bloody horrors!

[RedEyeJedi]

Complaining? double threads are annoying as hell.

Truth? He's just going on with his anti-american remarks, big deal. America is so backwards to Iran...oh.. yeah...because we don't have Islamic law and we let our woman have freedoms. Oh the bloody horrors!

Have you read it? The truth is with the spin the Western media put on anything coming out of the Muslim world, there is nothing Ahmadinijad could do, except write a letter to Bush, have a little delay for their official reaction and send a copy to the French - who don't have the 'bomb 'em' mentality. What do you get? The hypocrisy of the US in plain sight.

Will it help him - I truly hope so.

Nothing Iran wants to do is illegal and it dos not threaten the safety of anyone. When will people wake up?????

[Fluffybunny]

There is no reason to have multiple threads on the same exact topic...They are now merged.

[Sanjuro]

I just red the letter and it was quite good(except Israel part), lets see how Bush will answer it. (non-existing WMD in Iraq for a start).

Too bad Ahmadinejad dont know that Bush is not an christian but a bloody sectarian.

Edited May 9, 2006 by Sanjuro