WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday rejected outright an offer from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to hold a televised debate with US President George W. Bush.
"Talk of a debate is just a diversion from the legitimate concerns that the international community, not just the US, has about Iran's behavior, from support to terrorism to pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability," a senior administration official said, speaking privately.
Ahmadinejad Tuesday offered Bush a live television debate as he shrugged off the threat of sanctions ahead of a looming UN deadline for Iran to halt sensitive atomic work.
"I suggest we talk with Mr Bush, the president of the United States, in a live television debate about world issues and ways out of these standoffs. We would voice our opinions and they would too," he told a news conference.
The debate "should be uncensored, above all for the American public," said Ahmadinejad, who earlier this year sent Bush a letter in the first contact in decades between leaders of the two arch-foes.
But the outspoken president said that such a debate would not necessarily mean reopening dialogue with the United States, which froze diplomatic relations with Iran after the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
08/29/2006 15:05 GMT