Twenty-seven years after a chilling sit-down with Ayatollah Khomeini that was one of Mike Wallace's most memorable, the veteran CBS television newsman snagged an interview this week with current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Teheran. The 88-year-old Wallace had been pursuing the interview for so long that he had to be reminded by Ahmadinejad when he first asked for it.
A portion of Wallace's interview, conducted Tuesday at a crucial time in the Mideast with Israel fighting the Iranian-backed Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon, will be shown Thursday on the "CBS Evening News." A fuller report will air on Sunday's "60 Minutes" TV news magazine. During the midst of the American hostage crisis in 1979, Wallace interviewed Iranian leader Khomeini, locking eyes with the cleric when he asked for a response to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat calling Khomeini a lunatic.
Additional: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with Mike Wallace in Tehran on Tuesday in a rare, exclusive interview with a Western reporter.
In the wide-ranging interview, the Iranian leader comments on President Bush's foreign policy, the lack of relations between Iran and the United States, Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq.
Speaking about President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter that criticized U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad said, "Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective. Â… We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate. You see that his approval rating is dropping every day. Hatred vis-Ã -vis the president is increasing every day around the world. For a ruler, this is the worst message that he could receive. Rulers and heads of government at the end of their office must leave the office holding their heads high." | Remember the speculation about the letter being a traditional islamic invitation to submit to Allah? Refusal by Bush to submit being expected, it was Ahmadinejad's declaration of war. |
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