Iran's Ferdowsi University has invited U.S. President George W. Bush to address professors and students and discuss with them issues including human rights, terrorism and the Holocaust, local Fars news agency reported Monday.
The invitation was issued by Ali Reza Ashouri, chancellor of the prestigious university in the northeastern city of Mashhad, said the report, without giving further details about how or when the invitation was sent to Bush.
It came a week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the Columbia University in New York, where he faced tough questioning and received a combative introduction from the university president at the campus forum on Sept. 24.
In his introduction of the Iranian leader, Bollinger said Ahmadinejad acted like "a petty and cruel dictator," and then questioned him on his country's human rights record, support of terrorism and some of his more dubious opinions.
Iranian media and politicians have reacted angrily to the way Ahmadinejad was treated during the visit.
In response, the chancellors of seven Iranian universities last week sent a letter to Bollinger condemning his "insult" to the president of a country with "a recorded history of 7,000 years of civilization and culture."
Washington has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. But Iran denied the U.S. charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
The two countries cut off diplomatic relations in 1979 after Iranian militant students seized the U.S. Embassy and took some 52 Americans hostage for 444 days according to media reports.
Source: Xinhua
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