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Obama: U.S. Seeks Dialogue and Engagement with Iran

[New York Times] President Obama told a press conference Monday: Iran's "financing of terrorist organizations like Hizbullah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they've used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon...all of those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace." "My national security team is currently reviewing our existing Iran policy, looking at areas where we can have constructive dialogue, where we can directly engage with them. And my expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face to face; of diplomatic overtures that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction." "As we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country, that Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable, that we're clear about the fact that a nuclear Iran could set off a nuclear arms race in the region that would be profoundly destabilizing." "My designation of George Mitchell as a special envoy to help deal with the Arab-Israeli situation, some of the interviews that I've given...indicates the degree to which we want to do things differently in the region. Now it's time for Iran to send some signals that it wants to act differently as well and recognize that even as it has some rights as a member of the international community, with those rights come responsibilities."
2009-02-10 06:00:00
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