September 2, 2008

Dear Friends,

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit the United States next month as a part of the annual opening of the new General Assembly session at the United Nations. He will be joined by Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and other significant leaders from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) has been invited by the Iranian Mission to the United Nations to arrange a meeting for the Iranian president while he is in the United States with representatives of the peace movement in this country. President Ahmadinejad will be in New York City from September 22-25.  The Fellowship of Reconciliation has secured an appointment for the morning of Thursday, September 25th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan for this meeting from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. (Other meetings are being arranged with faith-based organizations for Thursday evening under other auspices.)

We are inviting concerned individuals and organizations from among our colleagues in the peace community to join us in this important meeting. This is a unique opportunity to engage in and expand the scope of civilian diplomacy that FOR has advanced through its program of delegations to Iran. (More than 100 U.S. citizens have visited Iran as members of one of seven FOR peace-building delegations over the past three years.)

In particular, we believe that this meeting will provide us the opportunity to: (1) illustrate and model how we in a democratic society challenge our government's policy concerning the use of military force to achieve diplomatic outcomes; (2) appeal to Iranian leadership to recognize and respect the presence and integrity of a civilian call for nonviolent diplomatic within the populace of the United States; and (3) articulate our global, humanitarian concerns for the opportunities of the Iranian people to pursue nonviolent solutions to economic, social, cultural, gender, and religious inequities on their own behalf.

We will have two hours to meet with President Ahmadinejad and his foreign minister about our concerns, worries, and hopes for promoting a direct and open dialogue between the governments and peoples of the United States and Iran.

If you are interested in joining us, please respond to this e-mail no later than September 5th.  You should contact me (Leila Zand, FOR Iran program director) at iran@forusa.org.

In your response, please make sure to include your full name and your affiliations with any organization working for peace and justice and in opposition to war. The protocol for the meeting will follow in subsequent communications.

Sincerely yours,

Leila Zand
Director, Iran Program
Fellowship of Reconciliation