Having been ignored when he wrote to George W. Bush earlier this year, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran sought to appeal over his head on Wednesday by releasing a “letter to the American people” asserting his criticism of US policies in the Middle East.

The letter, issued at the United Nations in New York and published on the Iranian president’s personal web site, seemed geared as much towards opinion in Iran and the Muslim world as towards Americans. It mentioned neither Iran’s controversial nuclear programme nor Lebanon, where Iran’s ally Hizbollah fought a war against Israel in the summer.