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Dear Friends,

This past Thursday, September 25, 2008, the American Friends Service Committee co-sponsored an event that received international attention -- an iftar dinner with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 Iftar marks the end of each day's fasting during Ramadan.

The dinner began with Christian, Muslim, and Zoroastrian prayers.  After dinner, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, president of the United Nations General Assembly, and the Rev. Kjell Bondevik, former prime minister of Norway and president of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, addressed the gathering, as did leaders of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths. President Ahmadinejad also spoke.  The speakers discussed the importance of religious faith in responding to major challenges, including inequality and war.

With this fourth in a series of high-level bridge-building and reconciliation efforts, AFSC and its co-sponsors -- the Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker United Nations Office, Religions for Peace, and World Council of Churches in consultation with the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations -- hope to build and continue dialogue with the Iranian people and their president.

Each meeting has made me hopeful for what could happen if the U.S. participated in a diplomacy without preconditions with the Iranian government.  This fourth dialogue has allowed us to build a deeper relationship with the Iranians, where we can explore issues between our countries in a more complex way.  

Because we've seen the value of these exchanges, we are planning several in the near future.  If visas are approved, we plan to host a delegation of Iranian religious leaders and academics to the U.S. this winter and organize a delegation of U.S. women religious leaders to Iran next year. 

As a Quaker organization, we have a history and legacy of promoting dialogue and understanding between nations.  True dialogue is the best way to respond to differences and conflict.   Over the past years of catastrophic loss in Iraq, we've seen the calamity caused when violence replaces talks and when opinions become hardened.

Please continue to hold us in the light as we endeavor to build bridges of understanding.

In peace,

Mary Ellen McNish

General Secretary, AFSC