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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Obama to Iran: US offer of dialogue still stands
2010-03-21
Notice that it's okay to go for 'regime modification' with Israel but not with Iran ...
20 March 2010 Obama renewed his administration's offer of dialogue and diplomacy with Teheran , a year after his offer of a new beginning with Iran failed to achieve concrete results. US President Barack Obama, who addressed Iranians in a new videotaped appeal to mark the observance of Nowruz—an ancient festival celebrating the arrival of spring—has pledged to pursue aggressive sanctions to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“We are working with the international community to hold the Iranian government accountable because they refuse to live up to their international obligations,' Obama said in the address, according to excerpts released by the White House. “But our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue stands,' he said.

Obama said Washington was committed to a “more hopeful' future for the Iranian people despite U.S. differences with Iran's government.

During his first year in office, Obama marked Nowruz with a then-unprecedented message offering Iran a “new beginning' of diplomatic engagement with the United States. But Tehran rebuffed Obama's gesture and relations soured further when Iranian authorities cracked down on opposition protesters after a disputed election last June, drawing U.S. condemnation.

“Over the course of the last year, it is the Iranian government that has chosen to isolate itself, and to choose a self-defeating focus on the past over a commitment to build a better future,' Obama said.

“Even as we continue to have differences with the Iranian government, we will sustain our commitment to a more hopeful future for the Iranian people,' he said.

Obama said the United States was increasing opportunities for educational exchanges for Iranian students to study at U.S. colleges and universities as well as working to increase access to Internet technology so Iranians could “communicate with each other, and with the world, without fear of censorship.'

Obama has not ruled out any options in dealing with Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude oil exporter, but U.S. officials have repeatedly made clear that their preferred option is diplomacy, given the difficulty of enforcing sanctions and the risk that military action could cause wider conflict.
He'll bludgeon Israel long before he goes after Iran ...
Posted by:Steve White

#2  Obama renewed his administration's offer of dialogue and diplomacy appeasement with Teheran...

Keep feeding that crocodile, Mr. President.
Posted by: Free Radical   2010-03-21 08:09  

#1  what a foolish boy our leader is.
Posted by: newc   2010-03-21 05:29  

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