Rice dismisses Ahmadinejad's letter as not serious

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed a surprise letter that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent to US President George W. Bush on Monday, saying it did not seriously address the standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. In an interview with The Associated Press, the top US diplomat said the letter from Ahmadinejad was 17-18 pages long and covered history, philosophy and religion. It was not a diplomatic opening, she said. "This letter isn't it. This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."