Simon Tisdall (The Guardian): Letter in need of an answer

Letter in need of an answer
By Simon Tisdall

Yesterday's letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to George Bush, the first such publicly announced communication since the 1979 Iranian revolution, may represent a tentative but significant first step towards direct talks with the US. Given the high level of international concern over Iran's nuclear activities and the possible American response to them, that could make it one of the more important missives to land on the White House doormat in recent years.

But it is equally possible that Iran, facing growing diplomatic isolation, is attempting to exploit divisions within the US and the UN security council over the nuclear issue. Mr Ahmadinejad's vague but tantalising offer to seek "new solutions" to international problems may stiffen Russian and Chinese opposition to the potentially fateful UN resolution the US, Britain and France hope to pass this week.

The Iranians will certainly have noted the lengthening procession of senior Republicans urging the Bush administration to swallow its prejudices, stop working through European proxies, and talk directly to Tehran. John McCain, Mr Bush's rival for the Republican nomination in 2000 and a likely presidential candidate in 2008, added his voice at the weekend. Direct talks were "an option you probably have to consider", he said.

Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, has proposed that Iran join a dialogue on energy and security with India, China, the US and other countries. It was too soon to press for UN sanctions, he told ABC television. "I believe for the moment we ought to cool this one." Despite accusations of appeasement from neo-cons, pressure on the US to talk rather than threaten has also come from Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state in Mr Bush's first term, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, and Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN nuclear chief.