From: Jeffrey Epstein [[email protected]] Sent: 2/11/2013 5:45:09 PM To: Larry Summers Subject: prep for dinner, israel pres briefing / The Wall Street Journal The Ayatollah Always Says No Editorial February 8, 2013 -The Farsi word for "no" is na h, which is easy enough to remember. Maybe even Joe Biden won't forget it the next time the U.S. tries to reach out diplomatically to Iran. We're speaking of the Administration's latest effort to come to terms with Tehran over its nuclear programs, which Mr. Biden made last weekend at the Munich Security Conference. The U.S. offer of direct bilateral talks, he said, "stands, but it must be real and tangible." Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who was also at the conference though he refused to meet with U.S. officials, called Mr. Biden's comments "a step forward." Mr. Salehi's remark set the usual hearts aflutter that Iran is finally serious about a deal. But the optimism was brief. On Thursday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei flatly rejected direct talks with the U.S. "The U.S. is pointing a gun at Iran and wants us to talk to them," he said. "Direct talks will not solve any problems." This isn't the first time Mr. Khamenei has played chaste Daphne to President Obama's infatuated Apollo. Just after becoming President in 2009, Mr. Obama sent the Ayatollah two private letters and delivered a conciliatory speech for the Persian new year of Nowruz. Mr. Khamenei's answer: "They chant the slogan of change but no change is seen in practice." He told a crowd chanting "death to America" that "if a hand is stretched covered with a velvet glove but it is cast iron inside, that makes no sense.” That was in March 2009. In October of that year the U.S. and its allies tentatively worked out a deal with Iranian negotiators to move some of HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_027102