„It is not accurate to refer to this as a congratulatory letter“

Erneut ein Fall von Konfusion. Diesmal weiß die UN nicht mehr recht, was man Ahmedinjead eigentlich geschickt hat. Immerhin weiß man nun, warum die Betonung in den letzten Tagen darauf lag, daß der Brief entgegen der Gepflogenheiten nicht veröffentlicht wurde.

The United Nations has revised a previous statement about Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulating the Iranian president on his re-election.

On Tuesday, when asked whether Ban had sent a congratulatory letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe responded by saying “yes”.

On Wednesday, however, Okabe reversed her previous announcement and said, “It is not accurate to refer to this as a congratulatory letter.”

“[Ban’s letter] takes advantage of the occasion of the inauguration to express the hope that Iran and the United Nations will continue to cooperate closely in addressing regional and global issues,” she added.