Agence France Presse – Iran President Mahmoud Amhadinejad’s letter to US President George W. Bush could be an attempt to influence the UN Security Council debate on Iran’s nuclear program, US intelligence czar John Negroponte said Monday.
"Bearing in mind that I haven’t read the letter … 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 the Security Council," said Negroponte.
Tehran said early Monday that the letter is meant to "propose new ways" to resolve a quarter-century of tensions between the arch-foes, who do not maintain diplomatic relations.
Ahmadinejad’s letter was to be passed on by the Swiss mission in Tehran, but early Monday the White House said it had not yet received it.
However, news of the letter also came ahead of a meeting in New York of the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany, seeking to map out a common strategy to force Iran to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.
Some council members, including the United States, believe Tehran’s nuclear program is a cover for developing atomic weapons, and the six countries are discussing a draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
If Ahmadinejad’s letter is considered more than a ploy to influence the New York talks, it could amount to a historic ice-breaker between Tehran and Washington 26 years after official top-level contacts between the two were severed, in April 1980 following the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Since 1981 the Swiss embassy in Tehran has acted as a conduit for messages.
