US dismisses Tehran's surprise letter Last Updated 2006-05-09 11:11:13
US officials dismiss Ahmadinejad’s letter as document that is more philosophical treatise than political overture.
WASHINGTON - The United States dismissed a surprise letter from Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President George W. Bush as world powers debated how to respond to Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The letter was the first from an Iranian leader to a US president for more than a quarter century, and suggested "new ways" to settle long-running tensions that have escalated over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
While Iran portrayed the letter as an important diplomatic initiative, US officials dismissed it as a rambling 18-page document that was more a philosophical treatise than a political overture, and does not change Washington's position in the nuclear dispute.
Tehran announced the letter before a meeting in New York of the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and the European Union who were trying to map out a common strategy to force Iran to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.
The ministers from the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union failed to reach an agreement on a possible UN resolution after the talks late Monday, a US official said early on Tuesday.
The official, who asked not to be named, said there was no agreement on a US push for a resolution under Chapter Seven of the UN charter which authorizes sanctions and even the use of force.
"I think the prospects for an agreement this week are not substantially good," the official said.
In the letter, Ahmadinejad proposes to Bush a return to religious principles as a means of restoring confidence between the two countries.
"Will you not accept this invitation?" asks Ahmadinejad in the letter, written in English and sent on Monday.
"That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets?" read the letter.
The document is filled with religious references and revisits many of the grievances that Tehran has against Washington.
It goes on to say that people of the world "have no faith in international organizations, because theirs rights are not advocated by these organizations."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was unimpressed.
"There is nothing in this letter that in any way addresses any of the issues really that are on the table in the international community," Rice told the editorial board of the Associated Press news agency on Monday, according to a State Department transcript.
"It is most assuredly not a proposal," she said. "There is nothing in here that would suggest that we're on any different course than we were before we got the letter."
Diplomats from both sides have also held confidential meetings, most recently following the defeat of Afghanistan's Taliban in 2001 and prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The letter was handed to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, Philippe Welti, by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The Swiss embassy represents US interests in Iran.
A Western diplomat in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity, said news of Ahmadinejad's letter was a "diplomatic bombshell" - given that communications via the Swiss have invariably been between the Iranian foreign ministry and the US State Department, far below the presidential level.
Before the letter was announced, Iran had adopted a defiant stance on the nuclear issue, asserting it has a right to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Security Council members are bargaining over a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
Bush has not ruled out taking military action against Tehran, which Washington also accuses of being the world's "leading sponsor of terror."
Russian news agencies quoted Moscow's top envoy, Sergei Lavrov, as calling for further negotiations, including more direct talks between major powers and Iran.
"There was general agreement on the need to create conditions for resuming direct negotiations on Iran's nuclear program," Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as telling Russian reporters in New York.
China reiterated its stance that the Iranian nuclear issue could still be resolved through diplomacy. "The Iranian issue is at a crucial moment. We urge all sides to remain calm, exercise restraint, show flexibility and avoid a worsening of the situation," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters in Beijing, echoing the Chinese government's standard line on the Iranian nuclear crisis.
China and Russia, which have close economic ties with Iran, have not supported the initial text of the resolution.
France's chief diplomat Philippe Douste-Blazy said the ministers discussed "incentives and dissuasive measures according to the Iranian response" in the confrontation.
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