Iran Crisis

Blacksword wrote: Iranian president writes letter to President Bush: Iranian president writes letter to President Bush The specifics of the letter will be published once the US president has read it (says Bush) This is significant as it is the first high level contact between the leaders of the two countries since 1979. It's thought that the Iranian leader is saying he will negotiate with 'anyone' in order to avoid conflict over Irans weapon program, which he still claims is non existent.

Yeah, I read that earlier. Should be interesting but I'm going to keep my optimism in check for now.

BTW, your link doesn't work, it goes to the forum home page. Same thing happened with the link I posted earlier. I'll try:


    
    Link

Edited by marktheshark - May 08 2006 at 10:58

Blacksword wrote: marktheshark wrote: Blacksword wrote: Iranian president writes letter to President Bush: Iranian president writes letter to President Bush The specifics of the letter will be published once the US president has read it (says Bush) This is significant as it is the first high level contact between the leaders of the two countries since 1979. It's thought that the Iranian leader is saying he will negotiate with 'anyone' in order to avoid conflict over Irans weapon program, which he still claims is non existent.      Yeah, I read that earlier. Should be interesting but I'm going to keep my optimism in check for now. BTW, your link doesn't work, it goes to the forum home page. Same thing happened with the link I posted earlier. I'll try:          Link Yeah, I'm not to optimistic either, Mark about the intentions of either man to be honest. Thanks for letting me know about the link BTW. I'll try to re-post it. I've had a few problems with posting links since the 'improvements' on PA have been implemented, not to mention posting pictures too. It's not like the good old days when you could just copy and paste things...

Blacksword wrote: With respect James, the whole issue of whether or not Iran can be trusted with nuclear power is neither here nor there. I still hold the belief that Iran can be handled by the IAEA with success. If they are genuine about their intentions to create energy only, then this will be easily verified by IAEA inspections.

You don't find anything contradictory about these two statements?

But I'm not here to quibble- your arguments are sound and reasonable. I'm simply trying to show that it is not simply a matter of corrupt warmongers in the US beating the drum and poor fools falling for it. If the clash of civilizations can be resolved without bloodshed, all the better...but neither am I conflicted as to who I sympathize with more.

Can anyone explain to me why Bush would not reply in kind?

It just seems like simple courtesy to reply with a letter of his own. What possible reason could there be for Bush not to write a letter- even if he did not respond to any of the specifics?

Please note that I'm not asking for facile humorous observations ("Bush can't write", etc.) or dull kneejerk responses ("cause Bush is an a**hole", etc), but actual reasons why the letter was dismissed so completely.

Geck0 wrote: Oh and does anyone know what the letter actually said?  The BBC article doesn't really shed much light on it.

Washington has just said that the letter criticised US`policy, but reiterated Irans intention to negotiate and resolve the issue peacefully. President Bush will not be replying to the letter in writing.

Apparently the president is playing the diplomacy card quite heavily since talks with UNSC members broke down. He is either being sincere about this, or is trying steer attention from all the talk of sanctions and force.
    

James Lee wrote: Can anyone explain to me why Bush would not reply in kind?It just seems like simple courtesy to reply with a letter of his own. What possible reason could there be for Bush not to write a letter- even if he did not respond to any of the specifics?Please note that I'm not asking for facile humorous observations ("Bush can't write", etc.) or dull kneejerk responses ("cause Bush is an a**hole", etc), but actual reasons why the letter was dismissed so completely.

I haven't seen the whole thing reproduced on the web yet, but I've been buzzing around reading different excerpts from it. But from what I can tell it doesn't really address the nuclear issue at all. In fact it sounds like it was written by Ted Kennedy. It just rambles on about poor handling of 9-11, WMDs, money for Iraq war could've been used for poverty etc. In other words, President Ahmahandjob sounds like a Democrat.

    

Edited by marktheshark - May 09 2006 at 23:20

^

stonebeard wrote: Sarcasm.

Geck0 wrote: Oh and does anyone know what the letter actually said?  The BBC article doesn't really shed much light on it.

The Iranian letter was published in the French evening newspaper "le monde". Try this link: