Ahmadinejad Writes Open Letter to Trump

Iran's former hardline president Mahmud Ahmadinejad has published an open letter in both English and Farsi to U.S. President Donald Trump, lauding the American leader for what he said was "truthfully describing the U.S. political system and electoral structure as corrupt."

The lengthy letter published Sunday also criticized Trump for his planned visa ban on seven countries, including Iran, saying "the contemporary U.S. belongs to all nations." He acknowledged, however, the immigration of some 1 million people of Iranian descent to the U.S.

Ahmadinejad decried what he called Washington's "dominance" over the United Nations and U.S. meddling in the world, which the former Iranian president said has brought "insecurity, war, division killing and [the] displacement of nations."

In the past, Ahmadinejad has written letters to former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

When Trump was elected last November, many Iranians viewed the two men as quite similar with surprising quick rises to power backed by hardline rhetoric and populist policies.