Learn it, live it, love it. It’s not that hard to say, and by deliberately not saying the common and respectful greeting while in Egypt to the Iranian Foreign Minister, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opted for the complete diss (and by a female, no less, to a representative of a misogynist regime) instead of productive diplomacy. Nice move.

At Thursday’s lunch, Mottaki greeted the gathered diplomats with the Arabic phrase, “As-salama aleikum,” a Muslim greeting often used by Iran’s Farsi speakers meaning “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.”



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