"The Prime Minister is someone I really like. When he told me he wanted to meet on his visit to New York, I decided to host an iftar dinner for him, knowing he was fasting.....But I had hardly any time to prepare for it. I had wanted to have New York Senator Hilary Clinton as a guest, but she had another engagement which she had committed to, as had Senator John Cain. Luckily, my friend, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was able to make it, right on the tail of a visit to Iceland."
Ertegun said that he was very pleased with the iftar dinner two days ago, which had included columnist Frank Rich from the New York Times, former World Bank head James Wolfensohn, and
film star Robert DeNiro. Said Ertegun, "Despite the fact that Erdogan was very tired from his journey, he made a wonderful speech which touched all of the guests. As a Turk, I was proud. But rather than Erdogan coming here, what really should have happened is that President Bush should have gone to Turkey."