Green Energy
The Washington Times is reporting that prior to this month's elections in Iran, Obama wrote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
By Barabara Slavin
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Prior to this month's disputed presidential election in Iran, the Obama administration sent a letter to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for an improvement in relations, according to interviews and the leader himself.
Ayatollah Khamenei confirmed the letter toward the end of a lengthy sermon last week, in which he accused the United States of fomenting protests in his country in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential election.
U.S. officials declined to discuss the letter on Tuesday, a day in which President Obama gave his strongest condemnation yet of the Iranian crackdown against protesters.
An Iranian with knowledge of the overture, however, told The Washington Times that the letter was sent between May 4 and May 10 and laid out the prospect of "cooperation in regional and bilateral relations" and a resolution of the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
The Iranian, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the letter was given to the Iranian Foreign Ministry by a representative of the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of U.S.-Iran diplomatic relations. The letter was then delivered to the office of Ayatollah Khamenei, he said.
The letter was sent before the election, whose outcome - delivering a supposed landslide to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - has touched off the biggest anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Obama administration, while criticizing a violent crackdown on demonstrators by Iranian security forces, has said that it will continue efforts to engage the Iranian government about its nuclear program and other issues touching on U.S. national security...
In a lengthy sermon Friday that reaffirmed the disputed re-election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei made an oblique reference to a letter from the U.S. but embedded the reference in a diatribe against purported U.S. interference in Iranian affairs.
"The American president was quoted as saying that he expected the people of Iran to take to the streets," Ayatollah Khamenei misquoted Mr. Obama as saying, according to a translation by Mideastwire.com.
"On the one hand, they [the Obama administration] write a letter to us to express their respect for the Islamic Republic and for re-establishment of ties, and on the other hand they make these remarks. Which one of these remarks are we supposed to believe? Inside the country, their agents were activated. Vandalism started. Sabotaging and setting fires on the streets started. Some shops were looted. They wanted to create chaos. Public security was violated. The violators are not the public or the supporters of the candidates. They are the ill-wishers, mercenaries and agents of the Western intelligence services and the Zionists."
Read the rest at the WT.
No wonder getting Obambi to denounce the attacks on protestors was like pulling teeth. Assuming revolution does not happen and the election stands, will he follow up on the contacts proposed in that letter anyway? And what position will Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and the rest be able to assume in those circumstances? If K&A planned for this rigged election to act as the starting bell for the all-out race to nuclear capability, did the track just get faster or sloppier?
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Green Energy
Washington Times: Obama Wrote to Iran's Khamenei Before Election
The Washington Times is reporting that prior to this month's elections in Iran, Obama wrote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
By Barabara Slavin
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Prior to this month's disputed presidential election in Iran, the Obama administration sent a letter to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for an improvement in relations, according to interviews and the leader himself.
Ayatollah Khamenei confirmed the letter toward the end of a lengthy sermon last week, in which he accused the United States of fomenting protests in his country in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential election.
U.S. officials declined to discuss the letter on Tuesday, a day in which President Obama gave his strongest condemnation yet of the Iranian crackdown against protesters.
An Iranian with knowledge of the overture, however, told The Washington Times that the letter was sent between May 4 and May 10 and laid out the prospect of "cooperation in regional and bilateral relations" and a resolution of the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
The Iranian, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the letter was given to the Iranian Foreign Ministry by a representative of the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of U.S.-Iran diplomatic relations. The letter was then delivered to the office of Ayatollah Khamenei, he said.
The letter was sent before the election, whose outcome - delivering a supposed landslide to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - has touched off the biggest anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Obama administration, while criticizing a violent crackdown on demonstrators by Iranian security forces, has said that it will continue efforts to engage the Iranian government about its nuclear program and other issues touching on U.S. national security...
In a lengthy sermon Friday that reaffirmed the disputed re-election of Mr. Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei made an oblique reference to a letter from the U.S. but embedded the reference in a diatribe against purported U.S. interference in Iranian affairs.
"The American president was quoted as saying that he expected the people of Iran to take to the streets," Ayatollah Khamenei misquoted Mr. Obama as saying, according to a translation by Mideastwire.com.
"On the one hand, they [the Obama administration] write a letter to us to express their respect for the Islamic Republic and for re-establishment of ties, and on the other hand they make these remarks. Which one of these remarks are we supposed to believe? Inside the country, their agents were activated. Vandalism started. Sabotaging and setting fires on the streets started. Some shops were looted. They wanted to create chaos. Public security was violated. The violators are not the public or the supporters of the candidates. They are the ill-wishers, mercenaries and agents of the Western intelligence services and the Zionists."
Read the rest at the WT.
No wonder getting Obambi to denounce the attacks on protestors was like pulling teeth. Assuming revolution does not happen and the election stands, will he follow up on the contacts proposed in that letter anyway? And what position will Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and the rest be able to assume in those circumstances? If K&A planned for this rigged election to act as the starting bell for the all-out race to nuclear capability, did the track just get faster or sloppier?
- Wall Street Journal Says, Obama Ordered Us Not To Support 2009 Iranian Green Movement Because He Was Courting Khamenei
How is this man still in office? Since completion of the agreement in July, Tehran security forces, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have stepped up arrests of political opponents in the arts, media and the business community, part of a...
-
Mehr News: Details of Obama’s letter to Iran released TEHRAN, Jan. 18 (MNA) -- A number of Iranian officials have released the details of the letter that U.S. President Barack Obama recently sent to Tehran. The New York Times, citing U.S. government...
- Top Cleric May Be Playing Role In Iran Unrest
MSNBC: Rafsanjani conspicuously absent at Khamenei's speech to country CAIRO - One of Iran's most powerful men may be playing a key role behind closed doors in the country's escalating postelection crisis. Former president and influential...
- Khamenei Draws The Line In Iran
It's Breaking News all over the MSM, here's FOX's take: Iran Supreme Leader Says Vote Was 'Definitive Victory' as Crowd Chants 'Death to America' TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's supreme leader said Friday that there was "definitive...
- Know Those Stories About Ahmadinejad's Power Waning?
Iran's Khamenei losing control; Ahmadinejad gains power Gertz: Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei has lost all but his title. Ill and aging, Khamenei's authority is rapidly fading amid infighting over succession. ...