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US Says Iranian Letter Not Diplomatic Breakthrough
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1223B91:3919ACA Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice says letter to Bush is about 18 pages long and talks
about history, philosophy, and religion





Condoleezza Rice U.S. officials say an unusual letter to President
Bush from his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does not present
any breakthrough in the current dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
The response came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared to
discuss the nuclear issue in New York with her counterparts from the
other permanent U.N. Security Council member countries.

The Ahmadinejad letter, conveyed to the White House by the Swiss
government, is believed to be the first communication of its kind
since diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran were
severed in 1979.

However administration officials are dismissing comments from Tehran
that the message is a significant overture in the frozen relationship,
with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying there is nothing in
the letter to suggest the parties are on any different course than
they were before it arrived.

Secretary Rice made the comments in a session with the Associated
Press in New York as she prepared to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue
over dinner with her colleagues from the other veto-wielding Security
Council member countries.

She told the AP the Ahmadinejad letter was 17 or 18 pages long and
covered history, philosophy and religion, but was not a diplomatic
opening or anything of the sort, and did not address the nuclear issue
in a concrete way.

There were similar comments from White House spokesman Scott McClellan
who said President Bush had been briefed on the contents of the
letter, but that it didn't appear to do anything to address
international concerns on the nuclear issue.

Earlier, other administration officials said the gesture by Iran might
be intended to complicate U.S. efforts to get a binding Security
Council resolution demanding that Iran end uranium enrichment. Among
them was U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, who
spoke to reporters at the White House:

"Certainly one of the hypotheses you'd have to examine is whether and
in what way the timing of the dispatch of that letter is connected
with trying in some manner to influence the debate before Security
Council," he said.

There was no early indication as to whether there would be a formal
U.S. response to the Ahmadinejad letter. Though the two countries have
not had formal relations in more than a quarter-century, they do
exchange messages through intermediaries and their diplomats have
occasional contact.

The United States earlier this year proposed talks on matters of
mutual concern about Iraq through the U.S. envoy to Baghdad Zalmay
Khalilzad, though Iran recently said such talks were unnecessary
because of the seating of a new Iraqi government.

Officials say Secretary Rice's late evening dinner meeting with her
Security Council colleagues would be a private strategy session.

Russia and China have resisted the draft resolution circulated by
Britain and France aimed at dealing with concerns Iran has a covert
nuclear weapons program.

Its call for Iran to halt uranium enrichment and return to
negotiations would be binding under Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter
but it does not seek immediate sanctions against Tehran.