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Invitation to Appease: Will the Obama Administration Talk to Iran While It Persecutes Americans and Libels Israel?

[Washington Post] Editorial - Last week, the Iranian regime convicted American journalist Roxana Saberi of espionage - a blatantly bogus charge. On Monday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who was last seen inaugurating a new facility for Iran's nuclear program, appeared at the UN conference on racism in Geneva to say the U.S. and other Western countries had "resorted to military aggression" in order to create Israel "on the pretext of Jewish sufferings and the ambiguous and dubious question of the Holocaust." Thus has Iran answered President Obama's offer of dialogue and the decision by his administration to join talks on Tehran's nuclear program. What Iran is doing is inviting Mr. Obama to humiliate his new administration by launching talks with the regime even while it is conspicuously expanding its nuclear program, campaigning to delegitimize and destroy Israel and imprisoning innocent Americans. Mr. Obama has always said that talks with Iran must be conducted under the right circumstances and in a way that advances U.S. interests. The administration won't meet that test if it allows negotiations to become a means of vindicating Mr. Ahmadinejad's radical agenda. It should postpone any contact until after the Iranian election in June - and it should look for clear signs that Iran is acting in good faith before talks begin.
2009-04-22 06:00:00
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