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Ahmadinejad's letter to Bush: Worse than we could imagine05/10/2006 Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that he was sending a letter to President George Bush excited great optimism about the possibility of opening direct channels of communication between Washington and Tehran. These would, it was thought, clear up the minor and silly misunderstandings that have beclouded US-Iran relations and defuse the crisis over Iran's nuclear program. Instead, Ahmadinejad's letter reveals that the situation may be far worse than most people in the West expected. It is an extraordinary document in every respect. It is a sermon rather than a diplomatic missive. Even more worrisome, the letter is not just the work of one man. The Iranian foreign ministry billed the letter as "proposing new solutions for getting out of international problems and current fragile situation of the world"". The "new solutions" offered by Ahmadinejad are these:
Bush administration officials, and Bush himself were wise and merciful in dismissing the letter in vague diplomatic terms, and calling for a diplomatic solution. In the most optimistic interpretation, the letter is a ploy for internal consumption in Iran. Taken literally, it is at least a dangerous and naive expression of a fanatic personality with no experience in diplomacy. If it is really indicative of the thought of the Iranian government as a whole, Ahmadinejad's letter is a truly ominous portent. Ami Isseroff
Original text copyright by the author and MidEastWeb for Coexistence, RA. Posted at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log at http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000457.htm where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Distributed by MEW Newslist. Subscribe by e-mail to mew-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by email with this notice and link to and cite this article. Other uses by permission. |
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Replies: 4 comments "We increasingly see that people around the world are flocking towards a main focal point -- that is the Almighty God. Undoubtedly through faith in God and the teachings of the prophets, the people will conquer their problems. My question for you is: "Do you not want to join them?" Mr. President, whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating toward faith in the Almighty, and justice and the will of God will prevail over all things." Actually I thought George Bush already believed that. Perhaps Ahmadinejad was trying to communicate with him on his own level. Posted by Chris @ 05/10/2006 03:54 PM CST
The letter to Mr. Bush was 18 pages long. If all you find is what you commented on, then one assumes the rest of the letter is of value. Playing with words is becoming very popular in the world and Chris may have a point in his comment. The Iranian leader was clear in that he refered to jews, christians and muslims. Posted by Mike Jebara @ 05/13/2006 09:03 PM CST
Is the link to the letter a full translation? It doesn't look like 18 pages. Without rereading the translation it seems to me that the Iraninan president makes 3 points: The free peoples are not all religious. ome are secular. If they were to follow the real teachings of their religions than we would be in deep trouble. The Muslims would have tried to conquer the world, the Christians to convert it, and the Jews would have enclosed themselves. I think a majority pf Israelis (but not all) would be happier if the Arabs were gone. But a majority of Israelis did not ever vote for a party that supports getting rid of the Arabs (in Israel). The Jewishness of Israel is similar to the Iranianess of Iran and the Arabness of the Arab countries, not their Islamism. Naturaly Israel wants to remain a Jewish state. Most countries want to remain whatever they are. If we are heading for a world without nation-states or nationalism, it is yet too early to tell. There are no real signs of such a process. Posted by Micha @ 05/14/2006 02:26 AM CST
Is the link to the letter a full translation? It doesn't look like 18 pages. Without rereading the translation it seems to me that the Iraninan president makes 3 points: The free peoples are not all religious. ome are secular. If they were to follow the real teachings of their religions than we would be in deep trouble. The Muslims would have tried to conquer the world, the Christians to convert it, and the Jews would have enclosed themselves. I think a majority pf Israelis (but not all) would be happier if the Arabs were gone. But a majority of Israelis did not ever vote for a party that supports getting rid of the Arabs (in Israel). The Jewishness of Israel is similar to the Iranianess of Iran and the Arabness of the Arab countries, not their Islamism. Naturaly Israel wants to remain a Jewish state. Most countries want to remain whatever they are. If we are heading for a world without nation-states or nationalism, it is yet too early to tell. There are no real signs of such a process. Posted by Micha @ 05/14/2006 02:27 AM CST Please do not leave notes for MidEastWeb editors here. Hyperlinks are not displayed. We may delete or abridge comments that are longer than 250 words, or consist entirely of material copied from other sources, and we shall delete comments with obscene or racist content or commercial advertisements. Comments should adhere to Mideastweb Guidelines . IPs of offenders will be banned. |
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