[Peace-discuss] Obama Stifles Hope...

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This follows on the point Randall made at Sunday's meeting.  But Obama's 
probably just saying it to get elected, eh? He'll change in office... --CGE]

	Obama Stifles Hope for Change on Iran Relations
	Posted November 9, 2008

After Tuesday’s election, Iranian citizens and officials hoped that 
President-elect Barack Obama’s victory was the beginning of a radical shift in 
US foreign policy with respect to Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
offered a congratulatory statement to Obama, while Iranian MPs displayed an 
openness to the first significant improvement in relations between the two 
nations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

And there was some cause for hope: Obama spent much of the presidential 
primaries chiding the Bush Administration for avoiding direct talks with Iran, 
and cautioned against talking about launching attacks on Iran.

But any hopes for major changes in the American stance toward Iran died pretty 
quickly when Obama publicly condemned the Iranian government, accusing them of 
developing a nuclear weapon and vowing an international effort against them, 
which he would not elaborate on until he takes over the White House in January.

The condemnation has sown pessimism in Iran, and has cost President Ahmadinejad 
politically as he has come under public attack, oddly from the same reformist 
faction that has long called for reconciliation with the US, for overstepping 
his station in offering a hand to the incoming US administration. It's a limb on 
which the Iranian President is unlikely to go out again.

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/11/09/obama-stifles-hope-of-change-on-iran-relations/