TEHRAN, 9 May 2006 — Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to US President George W. Bush yesterday proposing “new solutions” to the increasingly dangerous standoff between the two countries.
Another top Iranian official called it a possible new diplomatic opening but the United States reacted coolly, saying Iran must back down on its nuclear program.
The message appeared timed to blunt the US drive for a UN Security Council vote this week to restrain the Islamic regime’s nuclear ambitions. It was a striking change after Ahmadinejad’s months-long campaign to vilify Washington and its allies as bullies.
Iran contends it has the right to process uranium as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity. The Bush administration, Britain and France are concerned the program is a cover for making nuclear weapons.
The Ahmadinejad letter was the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years and could signal a demand that the former Tehran mayor be treated as an equal negotiating partner in any bid to untangle the prolonged international dispute.
Iran has long sought what it terms relations on an equal footing with the West
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, was skeptical the letter would change Washington’s mind.
“I don’t know what offer they would want to make, but it wouldn’t be surprising. It would fit the paradigm of their activity before and then once the squeeze lets up a little bit, back they go to enrichment, back they go to perfecting their conversion technology, back they go to the pursuit of nuclear weapons,” he said.
In Washington, Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said he was not aware of the Ahmadinejad letter, but restated US policy in the nuclear dispute.
“The international community has been very clear to Iran what it needs to do,” Hadley said on NBC’s “Today” show. “It needs to return to the suspension of its nuclear activities in order to open the door for a diplomatic resolution.”
The Iranian government spokesman who disclosed the communication did not mention the nuclear standoff and said the missive spoke to the larger US-Iranian conflict — which dates to the 1979 hostage crisis.
The lynchpin to any better understanding between Washington and Tehran, however, would be movement toward a solution of the nuclear issue.
According to government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham, the Ahmadinejad letter proposed “new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world.”
Elham declined to reveal more, stressing “it is not an open letter.” And when he was asked if the letter could lead to direct US-Iranian negotiations, he replied: “For the time being, it’s just a letter.”
In Turkey, Ali Larijani, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, said the Iranians were looking for a positive response but would be patient.
“Perhaps it could lead to a new diplomatic opening. It needs to be given some time,” Larijani said in a television interview. He cautioned that the “tone of the letter is not something like softening.”
The United States has publicly sought renewed contact with Iran through its ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been authorized to speak to Iranian officials about security in Iraq.
US officials say the talks await selection of a new Iraqi government and were to be limited to Iraqi security issues. Such meetings, however, would provide an opportunity to broaden discussions about the US-Iranian relationship.
