Iran president to send U.S. nation a message soon
Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:54am ET15
By Jon Hemming
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Tuesday he would soon send a message on his country's policies to the U.S. people, whose government is facing calls to engage the Islamic Republic to help quell violence in the region.
Washington is leading efforts to press for United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work, but at the same time is conducting a review of its policy in Iraq which is expected to recommend the administration engage with Iran and Syria.
"Many of the American people have asked me to talk to them and explain the opinion of the Iranian nation. Soon it will happen and I am going to send them a message," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a news conference.
The conservative president gave no details of the letter's contents. Ahmadinejad sent an 18-page letter to President Bush in May criticizing American policies, but received no formal reply. Bush described it as "interesting".
Iran has said it would consider any official request for talks with the United States. Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic ties since Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
"We want to have good interaction with all countries, except one country to which we do not give legitimacy," Ahmadinejad said apparently referring to Israel.
Iran does not recognize Israel. Ahmadinejad last year called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", but has also said Tehran is not a threat to the Jewish state.
Tehran and Washington have come close to holding direct, formal talks before and looked to have agreed in March to talks on Iraq, but Ahmadinejad said in April there was no need for such a dialogue.
Asked if any decision had been made on negotiations with the United States, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said: "Iran has not made any new decision in that regard."
"Reviewing is different from giving a positive answer. We review any proposal in various fields of foreign relations in the Foreign Ministry, but it does not necessarily mean issuing a positive response," Mottaki told a news conference.
U.S. ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair is among those promoting U.S. engagement with Syria and Iran over Iraq, an idea under discussion by the Iraq Study Group -- commissioned by President Bush to review policy in Iraq.
BAKER, ZARIF MEETING
James Baker, a Republican and former U.S. Secretary of State who chairs the Iraq Study Group with Democratic Representative Lee Hamilton, had a three-hour dinner in New York with Iran's U.N. ambassador Javad Zarif, the Washington Post said on Sunday.
The U.S. newspaper, which did not say when the dinner took place, reported: "Baker made clear that he was not negotiating for the United States but that the commission wanted Iran's input and suggestions."
Hamid Reza Haji Babaee, a member of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, described the meeting as "the beginning of negotiations" with America, the Iranian Web site Aftab reported. Other MPs played down the significance.
Last month, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said "foreign rivals" such as Iran and Syria were trying to tear the Iraqi people apart along sectarian lines.
Iran, which has close religious ties to Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims, has denied supporting armed groups in Iraq and blames the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq invasion for the violence.
Iran president to send U.S. nation a message soon
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