Obama Won't Directly Interact With Ahmadinejad At UN

While President Barack Obama has opened the door to direct high level talks between the U.S. and Iran, it appears he's not planning to take the opportunity of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York next week for the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

Ahmadinejad essentially guaranteed his likely treatment as a pariah by U.S. officials by yet another one of his statements, this time on Friday, denying the reality of the Holocaust.

U.S. ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, was asked Friday by journalists how U.S. officials, including the president, will respond to Ahmadinejad next week. She said she doesn't expect "direct engagement."

And she predicted that Ahmadinejad would see public evidence of grassroots American displeasure with him and the Iranian leadership.

Here's her exchange with reporters:

REPORTER: One more on Iran, if I might. The talks coming up — the Iranians have made very clear that although they're going to talk, they're not talking about suspending their program. President Ahmadinejad is going to be at the U.N. Are you hoping he's going to get an earful there?

 

AMBASSADOR RICE: From everybody or —

REPORTER: Well, from everybody. Or from the President —

AMBASSADOR RICE: I don't expect that they will have a direct engagement. I think he may find that there are many Americans who are outraged by not only his comments of today — which were hateful in again denying the Holocaust — but also express their serious condemnation of what has transpired in Iran over the last several months in the wake of the elections. I would not be surprised if there were public gatherings that reinforced that message. And I think other governments that will be listening to Ahmadinejad's speech will be listening carefully as to whether he reprises many of the same themes that we've heard in the past or has anything different to say.

REPORTER: I guess my question was whether you're expecting other governments to reinforce your message to him at the U.N.

AMBASSADOR RICE: Yes.

REPORTER: Do you expect the delegation from the United States to walk out when he speaks or when the leader of Libya speaks? And if they come up to try to approach the President, how will the President handle it?

AMBASSADOR RICE: I don't want to presage or guess what they might say or what would be the appropriate response. That's in the realm of the hypothetical.

With respect to the Iranian leader, I don't think there's much likelihood that there will be an interaction. There's no obvious venue in which that would occur, and certainly we have no meetings or anything of the sort planned.

And with respect to Qadhafi, Libya holds a seat at present on the United Nations Security Council, and Libya will be present at the Security Council summit.