Obama's refusal to hold debate with Iran president, a defeat for US

Obama's refusal to hold debate with Iran president, a defeat for US: "IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 5, IRNA -- U.S. President Barack Obama's refusal to hold a debate with Iranian president at the United Nations General Assembly registered a blow to the United States.

The Western and US media preferred to remain silent when the US officials showed a remarkable withdrawal after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran officially announced his readiness to hold “face-to-face” talks with his US counterpart.

In his speech to a meeting with a large number of Iranian expatriates in Tehran, President Ahmadinejad said last Monday that he was ready to hold a face-to-face debate with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session which is due to be held in September.

“I would like to declare my readiness to have a face to face talk in presence of world media with the US president at the United Nations General Assembly,” President Ahmadinejad said on August 2.

The news of President Ahmadinejad’s proposal received large coverage by the world media, the US and Western media in particular. The large coverage was surprising for the world political and media analysts.

However, the White House reaction to the Iranian president’s proposal received little coverage.

They only published Washington’s refusal to the proposal as a common and normal report and paid no attention to that as a considerable event of the international developments.

The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs claimed that Washington would not enter talks with Tehran.

He refused to elaborate the reason for Washington’s refusal to hold debate with the Iranian president.

Meanwhile, spokesman of the US State Department Philip Crowley later claimed that Iran was not serious in its proposal adding that it was made as a result of the new round of sanctions imposed on Iran for its nuclear program.