CAIRO: The Iranian president's letter to the American people this week was dimissed by Washington as a crazy propaganda stunt. But there is a rationale behind it: Iran is eager to break the ice and open dialogue with the Great Satan.
With the United States struggling over chaos in Iraq and trouble across the Middle East, Tehran is convinced it would have the upper hand in any talks with Washington and could win concessions in return for helping ease the turmoil.
So far, however, Iran's approaches have hit a brick wall. Washington is demanding Tehran back down in its nuclear programme, which many in the West believe is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons, before it will come to the table.
Tehran's style hasn't helped. It continually rails against ''US arrogance,'' and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to the American people, released in New York on Wednesday, struck its intended audience as a bizarre political lecture rather than an attempt at dialogue.
The letter branded the Bush administration's policies a failure and said Americans should press their government to try something new-- particularly, withdraw from Iraq.
US State Department spokesman Tom Casey called the letter ''something of a public relations stunt'' by the Iranian government.
Ahmadinejad surely had an eye on the Iranian public when he sent the letter, trying to show his people he was not just tough but open to talk.
But he also may genuinely believe he can persuade Americans by force of argument and ideas.
''He's ignorant of the attitude of the American people'' toward Iran, said Mustafa Alani, an Iran specialist with the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai. “He believes that US public opinion will be occupied with his letter and debate it. They (Iranian leaders) have a huge lack of understanding of American public opinion and what moves it.”
Before being elected president in 2005, Ahmadinejad was the mayor of Tehran with little experience in international diplomacy. Culture also plays a role in his manner: In Iran-- where discussions of poetry and theology are popular obsessions-- abstract debate of ideas is a political tool in a way not seen in the United States.
The hard-liner president has tried such personal contact before. In May, he sent a long letter to President George W. Bush, a combination of religious sermon and political screed, trying to persuade him to change his policies. Soon after, he challenged Bush to a face-to-face debate.
Both approaches were dismissed by the White House-- and they fuelled Ahmadinejad's image in the United States as a crackpot, as did his declarations that Israel should be ''wiped off the map'' and that the Holocaust was a myth.
But Iran appears to be confident that sooner or later, the United States will have to come knocking on its door to talk.—AP
