Rice: Iran Letter Not Helpful genre: Just Jihad
Offering the administrations first response to the letter sent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "It isn't addressing the issues that we are dealing with in a concrete way." Many feel the letter was timed to coincide with the actions by the U.S. to broach the issue of potential sanctions against Iran with the United Nations Security Council. Read the full article here.
In the letter, Ahmadinejad called liberal western-style democracy a failure and compared the United States to other "repressive and cruel governments", suggesting that historically they do not survive. He also suggested that President Bush look inward to understand the increasing hatred of the U.S. around the world.
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.
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.
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