US academic slams Iran president

Twelve days ago, you said the state of Israel "cannot continue its life".

This echoed a number of inflammatory statements you have delivered in the last two years, including, in October 2005, when you said Israel should be "wiped off the map".

Columbia has over 800 alumni living in Israel. As an institution, we have deep ties with our colleagues there.

I have spoken out in the most forceful terms against proposals to boycott Israeli scholars and universities, saying such boycotts might as well include Columbia.

More than 400 college and university presidents in this country have joined in that statement.

My question, then, is: Do you plan on wiping us off the map, too?

According to reports by the Council on Foreign Relations, it's well documented that Iran is a state sponsor of terror that funds such violent groups as the Lebanese Hezbollah, which Iran helped organise in the 1980s, the Palestinian Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While your predecessor government was instrumental in providing the US with intelligence and base support in its 2001 campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, your government is now undermining American troops in Iraq by funding, arming and providing safe transit to insurgent leaders like Muqtada al-Sadr and his forces.

There are a number of reports that also link your government with Syria's efforts to destabilise the fledgling Lebanese government through violence and political assassination.

My question is this: Why do you support well-documented terrorist organisations that continue to strike at peace and democracy in the Middle East, destroying lives and society in the region?

In a briefing before the National Press Club this month, General David Petraeus reported that arms supplies from Iran, including 240mm rockets and explosively formed projectiles, are contributing to "a sophistication of attacks that would by no means be possible without Iranian support". A number of Columbia graduates and current students are among the brave members of our military who are serving, or have served, in Iraq and Afghanistan. They, like other Americans with sons, daughters, fathers, husbands and wives serving in combat, rightly see your government as the enemy.

Can you tell them, and us, why Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq by arming Shi'a militia who are targeting and killing US troops?

This week, the UN Security Council is contemplating expanding sanctions for a third time because of your government's refusal to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. You continue to defy this world body by claiming a right to develop peaceful nuclear power, but this hardly withstands scrutiny when you continue to issue military threats to neighbours. Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made clear his lost patience with your stall tactics; and even Russia and China have shown concern.