Condi: Return to Sender

Finally, some details emerged about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush.

Condi did not see it as the "diplomatic opening" that Iranian government spokesman Ali Larijani said it was.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed a letter that Iran's president sent to President Bush on Monday, saying the first direct communication from an Iranian leader in 27 years does not help resolve the standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator called the surprise letter a new "diplomatic opening" between the two countries, but Rice said it was not.

"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," the top U.S. diplomat said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."

Rice said the letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was 17 or 18 pages long and covered history, philosophy and religion.

How would a 17 or 18 page letter on history, philosophy and religion help relieve tensions?

If Ahmadinejad wanted to do something constructive, he should have addressed the specifics of the issues being discussed in regard to Iran's nuclear program and its defiance of the UN.

Delivering a rambling term paper to the U.S. accomplished nothing.

..."There's nothing in here that would suggest that we're on any different course than we were before we got the letter," Rice said.

...The letter from the Iranian leader, which was not made public, appeared timed to blunt the U.S. drive for a U.N. Security Council vote this week to restrain the Islamic regime's nuclear ambitions. It was a striking change after the fiery Ahmadinejad's campaign to vilify Washington and its allies as bullies.

I don't see the letter as a "striking change" in Ahmadinejad's smear campaign at all. To the contrary, I see it as part of his campaign to vilify Washington.

All day, IRNA was reporting on the "important letter" that Ahmadinejad sent to Bush. But if it doesn't address the situation at hand, the letter has to be considered just another sleazy move by Iran and part of its propaganda plan.

Ahmadinejad can claim to be making diplomatic efforts. He can also say that evil Washington rebuffed him.

Anne Gearan of the AP suggests that the letter signaled a change.

No, it didn't, not if the letter failed to address the issues. It's self-serving and meaningless in terms of working toward a solution.

It's simply more of the same posturing by Iran.