(live-PR.com) - CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a new videotape Friday released ahead of the 6th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end, according to a transcript obtained by ABC News.
The videotape, which ABC said was 30 minutes long, appeared to have been recently made, since bin Laden refers to the Democratic victory in Congress and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May.
Bin Laden made no overt threats and did not directly call for attacks, according to a transcript posted by ABC News on its Web site. Instead, he addresses Americans, giving them a lecture on the failures of their leaders to stop the war in Iraq despite growing opposition to it in the U.S. public.
«There are two solutions to stopping it. One is from our side, and it is to escalate the fighting and killing against you. This is our duty, and our brothers are carrying it out,» bin Laden said, according to the transcript.
«The second solution is from your side,» he said. «I invite you to embrace Islam.

«It will also achieve your desire to stop the war as a consequence, because as soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam,» he said.
The al-Qaida leader has not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he has not put out a new audiotape in more than a year, his longest period without a message.