DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: MOTTAKI, IS HE AFRAID OF WOMEN, JUST A MISOGYNIST, FEARS THE COLOR RED OR WAS HE OVERTAKEN BY UNCONTROLLABLE LUST ?!?

Iranian Foreign Minister Ditches Dinner With Condoleezza Rice

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt — Iran's foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the pretext that the female violinist entertaining the gathering was dressed too revealingly.

"I dont know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.

The dinner episode Thursday night prefectly revealed how hard it was to bring together the top diplomats of the two rival nations at this regional conference.

The Iraqi government had hoped for a breakthrough meeting between Rice and Iran's Manouchehr Mottaki. Instead, their only direct contact was a wary exchange of pleasantries over lunch Thursday, punctuated by a wry, somewhat mysterious comment by Mottaki.

Mottaki entered the lunch, greeting the gathered diplomats with the Arabic phrase, "As-salama aleikum," or "Peace be upon you," according to an Iraqi official who was present.

Rice replied to him in English, "Hello," then added: "Your English is better than my Arabic," according to the Iraqi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the lunch was private.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit then piped in, telling Mottaki, "We want to warm the atmosphere some."

Mottaki smiled and replied in English with a saying: "In Russia, they eat ice cream in winter because it's warmer than the weather" — more or less meaning, "You take whatever atmosphere-warming you can get."

"That's true," Rice replied, according to the Iraqi official.

After lunch, Egypt's Aboul Gheit told the Associated Press he would try to arrange a further informal meeting between Rice and Mottaki at a gala dinner being thrown by the Egyptians Thursday night on the beach of a nearby resort hotel.

"Why not?" Aboul Gheit said. "It is only one table." But asked if he would seat Rice and Mottaki next to each other, he said, "No, no."

As it turned out, Mottaki's place was set directly across the table from Rice. When Mottaki's delegation entered the dinner and saw the arrangement, they seemed displeased, said a U.S. official who accompanied Rice. Mottaki immediately told his hosts that he had to excuse himself because of the violinist was "scantily clad," the official said.

Mottaki complained that the Egyptian female violinist playing nearby was too revealingly dressed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, also because the dinner was a closed affair.

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1) Iranian Foreign Minister Ditches Dinner With Condoleezza Rice