Political Cortex: Ahmadinejad's Invitation: No Interest on Either Side? By Stephen Krashen and Daniel Covany

Ahmadinejad's Invitation: No Interest on Either Side? By Stephen Krashen and Daniel Covany

By skrashen
12/07/2007 11:16:10 PM EST

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies." Moshe Dayan

In his speech at Columbia University, Iranian President Ahmadinejad invited university faculty and students "to come and visit Iran, to speak with our university students":

"You're officially invited. University faculty and students that the university decides, or the student associations choose and select are welcome to come. You're welcome to visit any university that you choose inside Iran. We'll provide you with the list of the universities. There are over 400 universities in our country. And you can choose whichever you want to go and visit. We'll give you the platform. We'll respect you 100 percent. We will have our students sit there and listen to you, speak with you, hear what you have to say. Right now in our universities on a daily basis there are hundreds of meetings like this. They hear, they talk, they ask questions. They welcome it." (translation from the Washington Post)

We were curious to see if there has been any movement on this invitation, either from Iran or from Columbia University.

Asking Iran

One of us (D.C.) wrote directly to President Ahmadinejad, to the address on his website, asking whether the invitation was open to those not affiliated with Columbia university, "to American citizens seriously interested in learning more about current thinking in Iran." D.C. also wrote a similar note to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to an e mail address on their website.

Iran does not have an embassy in the US, but has an "Interests Section" in the Pakistani Embassy in Washington DC. D.C. also wrote to this "Interests Section," again inquiring about President Ahmadinejad's invitation.

There was no response from either the President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Interests Section.

Asking Columbia University

Columbia University has a Center for Iranian studies. One would think that if anyone from Columbia would be interested in visiting Iran it would be a student or faculty member associated with this program. S.K. wrote the Center on October 30, asking whether there had been any response from Columbia University to President Ahmadinejad's invitation to Columbia University faculty and students to visit Iran.

The response was immediate: "Hello - you need to contact the university's president's office or the office of the dean of the school of international affairs."

We followed this advice. S.K. sent a similar note to the Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs (Acting Dean John Coatsworth, sent October 30). The School of International and Public Affairs sponsored Ahmadinejad's presentation at Columbia on Sept. 24.

The website of the President of Columbia University did not list an email address, so S.K. wrote the Director of the Office of Public Affairs (Executive Vice President for Communications, David Stone, sent November 4).

Neither the Dean of the School of International Relations nor the Vice President in charge of "communications" has responded.

Our inquiries did not lead to positive responses. In fact, our correspondences to both the Iranian Government and Columbia University have gone unanswered. This is unusual and baffling. One would expect at least a form letter.

The relationship between Iran and the United States is, to say the least, strained. Americans are unsure of what is happening in Iran, not only whether the government is preparing for aggressive action, but also what the mood of the public is. Visits by citizens with a goal of learning more about current Iranian culture and policies could help reduce these tensions. Apparently there is no interest on either side, despite President Ahmadinejad's invitation, to make this happen.