Ahmadinejad writes a letter to Obama
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Friday that he sent a letter to President Obama last month. “I have written a letter to Obama which will be published soon,” Ahmadinejad said.The Obama White House has confirmed receipt of the letter.
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“Obama has only one way to remain in power and be successful," Ahmadinejad said in the Tuesday Iranian State Television interview in which he mentioned the letter he sent. "This way is Iran. Obama should start cooperation with Iran in practice.”
Iran doesn't need the U.S. "to do anything for us to come out of isolation," he said, "Rather we want to help you come out of isolation.”
Earlier in the interview, Ahmadinejad said: "I sent him a message and told him that we welcome change, but we didn’t see any genuine change." It wasn't clear if he was referring to the recent letter or an earlier message.
The "nuclear issue is actually an excuse," he continued. The "U.S. has two options. Either to continue this wrong policy, or to cooperate with Iran. Cooperation is of course better for both of us.”
Ahmadinejad's letter to Obama was sent in the Iranian month of Esfand (February 20 to March 21), the Iranian presidency chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie was cited by the AFP.
"Yes, President Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the President in March," National Security Council spokesman Michael Hammer told POLITICO Saturday. "We are not going to get into details on the content of the correspondence at this time."Well, I guess that's good enough for another three-month delay in pushing sanctions through the Security Council. Oops - we already have that delay - sanctions aren't going to come up before the end of June already.
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Ahmadinejad's disclosure this week of the letter he sent to Obama last month would seem to be part of a wider effort to persuade some countries still on the fence about voting for a new United Nations Security Council resolution on Iran that he's still trying to diplomatically engage, and to push back on the perception domestically that Iran is becoming increasingly internationally isolated.
Ahmadinejad's televised interview coincided with Obama’s hosting of a nuclear security summit, which brought the heads of states and top officials from 47 nations to Washington to discuss ways to prevent nuclear material from getting into the hands of terrorists – a summit to which Iran was not invited.
It also came a day after the White House announced, following Obama's 90-minute meeting Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, that China was now instructing its diplomats in New York to work with U.S. diplomats on a new UN Security Council draft resolution on Iran.
"What I said to President Hu and what I’ve said to every world leader that I talked to is that words have to mean something, there have to be some consequences," Obama said regarding Iran sanctions Tuesday. "I want to see us move forward boldly and quickly to send the kind of message that will allow Iran to make a different calculation."
Ahmadinejad is hosting a nuclear summit of his own this weekend in Tehran, to which Iran claims several countries, including China and Russia, had sent diplomatic representatives.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:39 PM
1 Comments:
Does that mean Iran is willing to change course on its nuclear policy? Of course not. Ahmedinejad has already made it clear cooperation with the US will be on Iran's terms. But that will provide the Obami with yet another excuse to continue with their failed "engagement" policy towards Iran.
What could go wrong indeed
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