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Facing Obama, Iran Suddenly Hedges on Talks

[Washington Post] Thomas Erdbrink - Since 2006, Iran's leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the U.S. to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran's political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Obama. "People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous," Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday. "The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack," Taeb said. Opposition to the U.S., long vilified as the "great Satan" in Friday sermons, remains one of the main pillars of Iranian politics.
2008-11-13 01:00:00
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