Accessibility links

Breaking News

Ahmadinejad Writes Open Letter to Trump


FILE - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks during a news conference at the end of his visit to Cairo, Egypt, Feb. Feb. 7, 2013.
FILE - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks during a news conference at the end of his visit to Cairo, Egypt, Feb. Feb. 7, 2013.

Iran's former hardline president Mahmud Ahmadinejad has published an open letter in both English and Farsi to U.S. President Donald Trump, lauding the American leader for what he said was "truthfully describing the U.S. political system and electoral structure as corrupt."

The lengthy letter published Sunday also criticized Trump for his planned visa ban on seven countries, including Iran, saying "the contemporary U.S. belongs to all nations." He acknowledged, however, the immigration of some 1 million people of Iranian descent to the U.S.

Ahmadinejad decried what he called Washington's "dominance" over the United Nations and U.S. meddling in the world, which the former Iranian president said has brought "insecurity, war, division killing and [the] displacement of nations."

In the past, Ahmadinejad has written letters to former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

When Trump was elected last November, many Iranians viewed the two men as quite similar with surprising quick rises to power backed by hardline rhetoric and populist policies.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG