Iran Likens Bush Administration to a ‘Stubborn Child’

Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani on Thursday branded the Bush Administration a “stubborn, frustrated child” for refusing to make a goodwill gesture in response to the release of two American hostages in Lebanon.

His diatribe came before President Bush announced at a press conference in Washington that he is looking for “goodwill gestures” he can offer Iran, particularly help in uncovering information about four Iranian diplomats believed to have been killed in Lebanon in 1982.

Rafsanjani also declared in a speech broadcast by Tehran Radio that “Iran does not want relations with the United States.”

His comments, made in an address to a group of teachers in Tehran, appeared to rule out the possibility of a dialogue with the United States after 11 years of hostility.

But they also indicated that Rafsanjani, leader of Iran’s so-called pragmatists, is under mounting pressure from anti-Western radicals angered at Iran’s role in the release of the two Americans held by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim militants in Lebanon.

Robert Polhill, 55, of New York, was freed April 22. Eight days later, Frank H. Reed, 57, of Malden, Mass., was released.

Rafsanjani admitted that the Lebanese groups who freed Polhill and Reed had done so “at our suggestion. They could have . . . rejected our advice. But they accepted our advice.”

Tehran Radio, reporting other parts of Rafsanjani’s speech, said Rafsanjani likened Washington’s initial response to the hostages’ release to that of “a stubborn, frustrated child.”