Obama Administration Officials Say Efforts to Engage Iran Will Move Forward

[jefferson_dem]

Source: NYT

Obama Administration Officials Say Efforts to Engage Iran Will Move Forward
By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is determined to press on with efforts to engage the Iranian government, senior officials said Saturday, despite misgivings about irregularities in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The White House’s cautious reaction reflected the combustible scene in Tehran, where riot police officers were cracking down on opposition supporters, and the likelihood that the administration would be forced to pursue its diplomatic initiative with a familiar and implacable foe, who now also has a legitimacy problem.

“We, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a visit to Niagara Falls on Saturday. “We obviously hope the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people.”

There was palpable disappointment within the administration, where there were hopes, as President Obama said on Friday, that the throngs of people at the polls augured a change in Iran.

Trying to put a positive face on the outcome, one senior administration official held out the hope that the intensity of the political debate during the campaign, and the huge turnout, might make Mr. Ahmadinejad more receptive to the United States, if only to defuse a potential backlash from the disputed election.

“Ahmadinejad could feel that because of public pressure, he wants to reduce Iran’s isolation,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the delicacy of the matter. “That might also cause engagement to proceed more swiftly.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/us/politics/14diplo.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. This could have been a Bush-era headline with a change of only one letter:

Efforts to Enrage Iran Will Move Forward

[Tiggeroshii]

2. ummmmm....

Shouldn't they wait until things calm down a little bit over there? LA Times just called the current riots the largest since the student uprising ten years ago. Shouldn't we kind of wait until they aren't so. Preoccupied?