So much for Obama remaining silent during the Post Iranian "Election" Riots. Kissing Mullah butt didn't get him anything.
Time to fuel the planes and load up the bombs. The IAF will be flying East pretty soon. Just a matter of a few months.
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian leaders are turning inward and rejecting engagement with the West as they blame outsiders for street protests, even as President Barack Obama’s administration pushes for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program.
The leadership has denounced foreign governments as “enemies” for encouraging demonstrations over last month’s presidential election and plans to put a British Embassy employee on trial for inciting the protests, which were violently suppressed. A French student also has been detained on spy charges.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded yesterday that direct talks remain “the best vehicle” for presenting Iranian leaders with a choice of limiting their nuclear ambitions or continuing “down a path to further isolation.”
In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Clinton said neither she nor Obama “have any illusions that dialogue with the Islamic Republic will guarantee success of any kind.” She added that “the prospects have certainly shifted in the weeks following the election,” an assessment endorsed by specialists on the region.
“It’s much harder for any engagement strategy to be successful” in the post-election atmosphere, said former U.S. diplomat Mark Fitzpatrick, who now heads the non-proliferation program at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The regime is increasingly isolated since the election and more determined than ever to reject international demands that it give up uranium enrichment, a prelude to developing a nuclear weapon, said Fitzpatrick, who was deputy assistant secretary of State for non-proliferation until 2005.
Consequences of Failure
Obama’s engagement initiative seeks to persuade the regime to accept limits on nuclear development in return for economic and political benefits. Its failure could trigger a regional arms race, increase chances of an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and lead Iran to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s crude oil is transported.
“The U.S. administration is discovering now that that the attitude of Iranian leaders is harder to sway than they thought on the campaign trail,” said Ilan Berman, an Iran expert at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. “That’s where the frustration is coming from.”
Reflecting that frustration, Clinton said July 8 that the U.S. will seek wider sanctions against Iran if it rejects dialogue. Vice President Joseph Biden said July 6 that Israel has a “sovereign right” to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Dispute Over Purposes
Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, says its nuclear efforts are intended solely to generate electrical power. The U.S. and allies say it is developing a weapon.
Obama’s overture to Iranian leaders was aimed at breaking a stalemate, by withdrawing President George W. Bush’s demand that Iran must first halt enrichment before any talks could begin.
“If countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us,” Obama said in a January interview with the Arabic-language, Dubai-based al- Arabiya television network.
Before that, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, had offered to aid Iran’s civilian nuclear program and provide economic benefits in return for a suspension of enrichment.
The results have been meager. Even before the June 12 election, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said Iran had stepped up enrichment and was still blocking international monitors.
Ahmadinejad and Mousavi
Then came the election, the government’s declaration that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected and the claim by challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi that the vote was rigged. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets. The regime responded with a crackdown in which 20 people died and hundreds were arrested, according to state-run news media.
Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the U.S. and U.K. of stoking the protests, and police on June 27 arrested nine British Embassy employees on suspicion of inciting demonstrations.
While eight were later released, Hossein Rassam, a political adviser, faces trial on charges of harming Iran’s national security. On July 1, police also arrested a 23-year-old French student, Clotilde Reiss, for alleged espionage.
‘Iron Fist’
Khamenei on July 6 warned that the Islamic republic would show an “iron fist” toward countries it regarded as “enemies.” Ahmadinejad said on June 14 that Iran would not tolerate outside pressure. “Our nation is not afraid of threats,” he told a news conference in Tehran. “It will stand up to those who want to prevent its progress.”
Obama, 47, now has little diplomatic maneuvering room, said Cliff Kupchan, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group in New York. The only recent response to his initiative came on July 11, when Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran would present new proposals as a basis for talks, with no details.
The last time Iran made such a proposal, the U.S. didn’t take it seriously because “it didn’t address the specifics of the nuclear issue,” Kupchan said.
The best hope for reviving diplomacy is if Iranian leaders conclude that doing so lets them restore the legitimacy they lost because of the election, said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California. A deal might allow Iran to maintain enrichment in return for international oversight, he said.
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Iran Spurns Engagement on Nuclear Program, Thwarting Obama Effort
