Just wish to indicate that people (specifically politicians) should speak in a language that better serves the purpose of their talking; it is not good to speak in a language where both the speaker is unable to convey his or her points of view eloquently, and the hearers have problem understanding the speaker. From this perspective, I believe that Mr Hashemi did exactly the right thing by speaking in Farsi. In fact, Mr Mottaki was able to express his points eloquently only while he was speaking in Farsi --- I felt extremely nervous hearing him speak in English (one should realise that things can easily get misinterpreted, in particular when the atmosphere is charged and people feel distrustful towards one another). I therefore respectfully disagree with Katayoon on this point; the occasion was meant to provide the speakers with a platform from where to express their views (better, the views of the governments that they serve) in as clear a fashion as possible, and not for them to speak in any specific language, be it English or Farsi. I similarly disagree with Arash insofar as it is not necessary that a foreign minister should speak English, eloquently or otherwise (unless of course the foreign minister is that of an English-speaking country). On the other hand, Mr Mottaki, or any other person in his position, should be well aware of the shortcomings of his spoken English and thus avoid speaking broken-English in public. As for the accuracy of some of the things expressed regarding history, I have sympathy for Katoyoon, however. The simple fact is that the Persian Empire did not come into being spontaneously; Persian armies must have shed some innocent blood in order to subjugate the invaded nations and thus extend the borders of Iran from the Western borders of China to almost the middle of Europe (Sicily). The same applies as regards the plight of the Afghani refugees in Iran. I believe however that for the reason or reasons of the injustices being meted out to these refugees, Iranians should first look carefully into their own souls rather than to politicians, my memory being that in general, and sadly, Iranians tend to look down on their hapless Afghani brothers and sisters (excluding such brave souls as Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Majid Majidi, the film directors who through their artistic works attempted to raise the awareness of the general public on the inhumane conditions of these refugees --- no doubt, countless other people must have done some admirable and selfless works, for it is not easy to accommodate well over 2,000,000 refugees). I have myself witnessed the unfriendly attitudes of some of my compatriots towards Afghani people long before Iran became an Islamic Republic. BF.