Ahmadinejad spars with US policy heavyweights

NEW YORK, Sep 21: After railing against U.S. global dominance at the United Nations this week, hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared with some of his most prominent American critics to debate issues including his views on the Holocaust and Iran's nuclear program.

A 90-minute closed event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday night represented the highest-level recent attempt at an informal Iranian-American dialogue, even as the two governments exchange heated rhetoric over nuclear weapons, terrorism and West Asia security.

''My sense was that, in principle, he (Ahmadinejad) was open to a relationship (with the United States) but that he wanted the United States to take the initiative to bring it about,'' Richard Haass, council president, told Reuters.

Ahmadinejad, who took office in 2005, avoided speech-making and ''seemed to enjoy the give-and-take'' of intellectually sparring with the group of 19 council members on a broad range of issues, Haass said.

''A lot of the significance of the meeting is the fact that it happened,'' he said.

Questions posed to Ahmadinejad included why he persists in describing the Holocaust as a myth, why Tehran insists on enriching uranium when it could have access to nuclear power without doing so, and why some Iranian newspapers have been closed. He appeared to break little new ground.

''It was a measured, intelligent exchange,'' one participant said.

The council did not release a list of attendees. Participants said the group included Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser in the administration of President George W. Bush's father; Robert Blackwill, former deputy national security adviser for Bush; former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and former senior Pentagon official Ashton Carter, both of whom served in the Clinton administration.

No currently serving U.S. officials attended, Haass said.

The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since after the 1979 Islamic revolution when student radicals seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Since then, intermittent attempts to breach the divide have borne little fruit. The crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions has prompted new calls for dialogue. In a 2004 report the Council on Foreign Relations concluded ''the lack of sustained engagement (with Iran) has harmed U.S. interests.'' Under pressure, Mr Bush earlier this year agreed to join other major powers in negotiations if Iran suspended uranium enrichment. The United States and allies say the enrichment program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons and Tehran insists it is for electric-power generation.

Despite enmity between their governments, Bush and Ahmadinejad have expressed regard for each other's citizenry and urged people-to-people exchanges.

Earlier this month, the administration gave former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, a moderate who preceded Ahmadinejad, an unrestricted visa to travel widely in the United States, where he gave speeches and held news conferences.

Last week, however, a senior West Asia researcher for the U.S.

Congress was denied entry to Iran for a conference.

Reuters