Iranians Fault Rice's Dismissal of Letter

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is interviewed at the offices of the Associated Press in New York Monday, May 8, 2006. President Bush said Rice would go to the United Nations on Tuesday to press for a new U.N. resolution increasing peacekeepers in the Darfur region of Sudan. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (Richard Dres - AP)

The United States is backing a draft U.N. resolution that could lead to sanctions and possible military action if Iran does not suspend uranium enrichment. The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies, saying it aims only to generate energy.

Officials declined to provide any details of the substance of the meeting between the Iranian and Indonesian leaders. Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda had said earlier that they would discuss the Iranian nuclear standoff.

The Iranian was also expected to attend a summit of developing nations.

"We want Iran to be more transparent in its program," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the letter was not intended to address the nuclear issue. "We have sufficient logic and legal reasoning (to defend our program)," Asefi was quoted by the radio as saying.

"Our aim was to express our opinions about global problems and the way out of these problems," he said.

Reaction to the letter was mixed in Iran and across the Mideast.

Iranian newspapers described the message as "an initiative in global diplomacy" and "dialogue under the shadow of war."

But conservative lawmaker Hashmatollah Falahatpisheh lambasted Ahmadinejad for failing to consult parliament before sending the letter to the country Iran considers its greatest enemy.

"This message is the outcome of a series of taboo-breaking behaviors in Iran's foreign policy. ... That the parliament is not aware of (the contents of the) letter is questionable," Falahatpisheh told an open session of the parliament broadcast live on state-run radio Tuesday.

Among Gulf nations, the letter fueled suspicions toward Iran.

The Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat called the letter proof that "Iran is not enriching uranium for peaceful purposes as it says, and is striving for leadership and control of the region."

Such Iranian leadership would mean the Israeli-Palestinian peace process "would be stalled, the Iraqi dream (of democracy) would be thwarted and we would witness a new wave of armament," wrote Tariq Alhomayed, the paper's editor-in-chief.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Arab Times ran an editorial in which editor-in-chief Ahmed Al-Jarallah accused Ahmadinejad of acting "as if he owns the region."

Some of Iran's Arab neighbors have expressed fears over Iran's nuclear program _ particularly over pollution in case of an accident _ as well as over the standoff with the West, fearing possible Iranian retaliation against American military bases in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain should the U.S. launch a pre-emptive strike.

But an editorial in Lebanon's The Daily Star newspaper called the letter "a cause for hope that a peaceful solution" to the nuclear standoff and called on Washington to initiate direct talks with Tehran.

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