Obama's Iranian Posture

Can America live with an Iranian nuclear weapon? This question was recently posed to President Obama during his first interview as President. Obama responded only generally, expressing disapproval of an Iranian bomb but not the flat condemnation that is standard from American officials. The interview was conducted by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya Network. "Will the United States ever live with a nuclear Iran? And if not, how far are you going in the direction of preventing it?" asked the interviewer, Al Arabiya Washington Bureau Chief Hisham Melhem.

"You know, I said during the campaign that it is very important for us to make sure that we are using all the tools of U.S. power, including diplomacy, in our relationship with Iran. Now, the Iranian people are a great people, and Persian civilization is a great civilization. Iran has acted in ways that's not conducive to peace and prosperity in the region: their threats against Israel; their pursuit of a nuclear weapon which could potentially set off an arms race in the region that would make everybody less safe; their support of terrorist organizations in the past -- none of these things have been helpful."

Perhaps a generic meandering response was calculated. During the campaign and transition periods, Obama's condemnations of an Iranian nuclear weapon were more direct [Meet The Press, December 7th 2008]:

"[T]heir development of nuclear weapons would be unacceptable"

The question is: what does Iran think about this response? An overture to establishing diplomatic ties? The opportunity to forge a fresh, healthy relationship with the West? Perhaps ...

Perhaps their response here is the same as their response to Clinton's overtures last week?

Maybe Iran is reading between the lines. If Iran's stated goal is to rid the region of God's chosen people then why would they suddenly abandon this effort just because the West, the great Satan, wanted to be friends? Perhaps Iran will interpret this as weakness and step-up its plans to unleash hell?

Obama is doing things the way he said he would. Let us see what happens next.