"Paper: Iran Leader Writes to Americans," by Nasser Karimi - AP (Tehran), 30 November 2006
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to the American people that will be released at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday, a state newspaper reported.
The newspaper gave no details of the letter, an apparent attempt by the firebrand president to reach out to Americans over the head of their government.
The state-run newspaper Iran reported the letter in bold type on its front page, saying "the five-page letter to the American people will be released by Iran's representative at the United Nations today."
Ahmadinejad wrote a rambling, 18-page letter to President Bush in May, which Washington criticized for not addressing Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. is leading the drive to impose U.N. sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Average Iranians were disappointed by the cold response to the May letter, the first official communication between the two countries' presidents since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad said he was planning to write a letter to Americans.
"Many American people asked me to talk to them in order to explain the views of the Iranian people," Ahmadinejad told reporters, referring to his visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly session in September 2005.
Ahmadinejad has alienated many Americans by calling for Israel's destruction and repeatedly dismissing the Holocaust as a myth. He also strongly supports the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Lebanese faction Hezbollah, which the U.S. State Department lists as terrorist organizations....
The text of Ahmedinejad's May 2006 letter to President Bush is posted to various websites, including GlobalSecurity.org and Tikkun magazine.
Al Ahram Weekly carried this analysis of the May letter:
"From Ahmadinejad to Bush," by Mustafa El-Labbad - Al Ahram Weekly (Cairo), 18-24 May, 2006
With the world holding its breath while permanent representatives of the UN Security Council met in New York to deliberate how to tackle the problem of Iran's nuclear programme, Iran pulled another rabbit out of its hat. This time it came in the form of a letter addressed from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to US President George W Bush, delivered via the Swiss Embassy, which is handling US interests in Tehran.
At the same time, considerations of various regional and international parties have altered in a manner that have weakened the American negotiating position in the Security Council and rendered talk of tough action against Iran incongruent with the current mood of the international community. Nonetheless, the third party initiative that all hoped would halt the vicious cycle of escalation between Washington and Tehran, dispelling the looming spectre of another war in the region, was not forthcoming. Ahmadinejad's media offensive was, in a sense, therefore a substitute well-timed. Although the letter contained nothing new with regard to the Iranian stance, it may have bought Tehran precious time as it waits for other parties to toss it a diplomatic lifeline....
Iranian bodybuilders are renowned for their art. When you see them in the zorkhana -- the traditional gym -- you cannot help but gasp in astonishment at their skill and dexterity. Towards the end of their shows, bodybuilders display their proficiency by using various weights and chains to flex and enhance muscles in rapidly executed routines choreographed to the beat of Iranian tambourines. Yet, as impressive as these performances are, the spectator cannot help but grow weary of the repetition. The same applies to Iranian diplomatic muscle flexing. Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush was a brilliant display of Tehran's dexterity at using the media to win international sympathy. Having come after a period of flexing various other strategic muscles, it represents a new and graceful addition to the routine. However, this strategy's weakness resides precisely in the danger of it becoming routine; of spectators getting weary and saying "Enough already!".
Tehran has another two-week grace period. Either it comes up with a new move or two, or it will have to accept compromise, take its curtain bow to applause and calls of congratulation and come back to the table with substantive and final proposals.
Hi. I run a news service too. If you click on my homepage, you can read my own take on diplomacy, economic matters and the universe in general.
Unlike you, I grew up INSIDE the diplomatic world, my parents being CIA and State Department. Heh.
The Darkside as well as Day side. And since I ran around with world leaders as a child and teenager and even tangled with the KGB and got deported from Germany when my parents were running around Sikkim and Nepal, I see the 'active' side of diplomacy, namely, who is going to be assassinated, which governments were slated to be pulled under, plans for invasions, etc. Lots of fun.
Diplomacy is preparation for war. Nearly always. And people do really, really, REALLY stupid things (look at Iraq) concerning wars and understanding why this happens and who does what is of interest.
The American diplomatic machinery has collapsed fatally. The people running it have no idea of what is going on. Just like in the sixties, I would report to my parents what I heard on the streets in Europe but this didn't change anything and then one day, I was on top of a car in the middle of a riot, directing demonstrators! 1968 was a fun time to be in Europe and to know what was going on in Washington.
Anyway, back in the USA, I continued to meddle in foreign affairs and it was always fun to see how NAIVE the American diplomats were! You left the service because you didn't like the bubble? Well, it is easy to leave this bubble...if you oppose the CIA and the government.
If you are part of the State, you serve the State and the empire of America was interested only in making ourselves fat and lazy and now we are fat and IN DEBT. And the Chinese plan is for us to fall totally in debt to them and then they 'own' us and today they hold one trillion dollars in their FOREX box kept under Hu's bunk bed.
In other words, we lost the struggle for dominance with China. And we are losing it in Iraq and if we 'win' there we still lose because we own China a fortune in that $500 billion mess.
Diplomacy is nothing if it isn't backed by an economy and our economy is destroying our diplomacy and our military is destroying our economy. We continue to roll along but this is an illusion: the second the Chinese cease funding us, we collapse. If they release that trillion dollars in their FOREX account, we die. Boom.
No diplomacy can fix this and I know some of the people in the Chinese system, my parents were stationed there for YEARS and I know their plans (being young and plying people with drinks and dumplings does wonders).
Well, this was all a lot of fun. As an American, I am sorry we lost this game. I did warn the State Department during the Reagan years and Bush Sr and I argued until the Chinese let us know, they own him and his family (they very much own them now!) and since our country is run by a family of traitors, poof. There we go, off the cliff.
Ta ta.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | 08 January 2007 at 05:16 PM
PS: Please post information about the Bush family business with the Chinese and the bin Laden family. If you are unaware of this amazing mess, do google information, it never ceases to amaze me, how trusting Americans are of this family of traitors. I am sorry to say that I told the Chinese back in 1985, Bush was a man eager to sell his soul, they already knew from when he was an ambassador there.
They spied on his private life back then just like they spied on all of us. Very funny stuff. Lots of funny stories of when they were thwarted in listening in and would send someone directly to the room to check up and listen while literally standing there...
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | 08 January 2007 at 05:22 PM
تحليل كاشمرحامي بر حضور سبزها در يوم الله ۱۳ آبان ۸۸
نه موسوی ، نه احمدي ، فقط رژيم پهلوي
Posted by: كاشمرحامي | 19 November 2009 at 04:50 AM
The American diplomatic machinery has collapsed fatally. The people running it have no idea of what is going on. Just like in the sixties, I would report to my parents what I heard on the streets in Europe but this didn't change anything and then one day, I was on top of a car in the middle of a riot, directing demonstrators! 1968 was a fun time to be in Europe and to know what was going on in Washington.
Posted by: cheap ed hardy | 31 January 2010 at 01:51 AM