Mahmoud takes Obama’s outreach seriously, and a step further.
Said Obama in the Democratic debate of 7/23/07:
Q: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since.
In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?
OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.
And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We’ve been talking about Iraq — one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they’re going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/13876/democratic_debate_transcript_cnnyoutube.html
Obama convieniently omitted the fact that IRAN and SYRIA are just two of the de-stabilizing terrorist forces in the region.
We ‘talked’ with the Soviets from a position of cncise, unwavering strength; a concept that Obama, the foreign policy fuck-up, doesn’t grasp.
Iran is already making plans:
Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor said on Saturday that Iran has set two preconditions for holding talks with the United States of America.
In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said as long as US forces have not left the Middle East region and continues its support for the Zionist regime, talks between Iran and US is off the agenda.
It is the Americans who are in dire need of reestablishing ties with Iran, he underlined.
Iran is not obliged to reestablish ties with the US, he said.
“If they take our advise, grounds for such talks would be well prepared,” he said.
It is stupidity to hold talks without any change in US attitude, he underlined.
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0810118630172325.htm
Remember, this is the regime with which Obama wants unconditional dialogue.
If the Obamanation ever takes control of the White House, expect Iran and every other Islamic nation-state in the Middle East to be encouraged to regroup and renew attacks there and in the U.S.
An Obama election would give them a green light not seen since Bubba Clinton’s refusal to go after Bin Laden.