<blockquote><http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/09/60minutes/main1879867.shtml> Iranian Leader Speaks To Mike Wallace
NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2006(CBS) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with Mike Wallace in Tehran on Tuesday in a rare, exclusive interview with a Western reporter.
In the wide-ranging interview, the Iranian leader comments on President Bush's foreign policy, the lack of relations between Iran and the United States, Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq.
Speaking about President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter that criticized U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad said, "Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective. … We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate. You see that his approval rating is dropping every day. Hatred vis-à-vis the president is increasing every day around the world. For a ruler, this is the worst message that he could receive. Rulers and heads of government at the end of their office must leave the office holding their heads high."
On what the "conducive conditions" would be for Iran to establish relations with the U.S., the president said, "Well, please look at the makeup of the American administration, the behavior of the American administration. See how they talk down to my nation. And this recent resolution passed about the nuclear issue, look at the wording. They have given us — presented us with a package which we are studying right now. We even gave them a date for our response. Ignoring that, they passed a resolution. They want to build an empire. And they don't want to live side-by-side in peace with other nations. The American government, sir, it is very clear to me they have to change their behavior and everything will be resolved. (George W. Bush) believes that his power emanates from his nuclear warhead arsenals. The time of the bomb is in the past, it's behind us. Today is the era of thoughts, dialogue and cultural exchanges."
The report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.</blockquote>
BTW, who knew that Mike Wallace agrees with me on my Persian Prince: e.g., "'He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way,' Wallace said. 'He's very, very short but he's comfortable in his own skin'" ("What Retirement? Mike Wallace Gets Scoop in Iran," 10 August 2006, <http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-08-10T063216Z_01_N10293739_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-WALLACE-COL.XML>)?
;->
Naturally, the Right is appalled: <http://volokh.com/posts/1155184047.shtml> <http://powerlineblog.com/archives/014964.php>!
The flak machine will soon get to work, just as it did in response to his reporting on the Jews of Syria:
<blockquote>_You fomented a lot of controversy with your piece on Syria in 1975. Talk a little bit about the reaction that you got from the Jewish community, particularly._
Well, I'm Jewish myself, you know.
I'm Jewish by heritage and certainly by feeling, but not a particularly religious or pious Jew. My religion is the Golden Rule. That's what I try to live by. But having said that, I met a Palestinian by the name of Fayez Said who was, I guess, born and brought up in Lebanon, who let the scales fall from my eyes about the state of the Palestinians. I began to -- I talked with him, and as a result of that I wanted to move around. By this time I was doing a lot of foreign work. I wanted to move around in that community and the Arab -- Palestinian and so forth -- community. Finally, we were going to do a story about the Syrian Jewish community, which had been substantial, and then had narrowed considerably. What we did was tell the truth about the real state of the Syrian Jewish community, which was not as bad as we had been led to believe. I was promptly labeled a self-hating Jew because we began to tell the truth about what was going on there.
<http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wal2int-4></blockquote>
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>