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Obama's Opportunity in Iran
[Boston Globe] Nicholas Burns - President Obama's accusation that Iran has lied about a secret nuclear plant gives the U.S. the most important opportunity in years to pressure Tehran to forgo its nuclear weapons ambitions. By drawing a "line in the sand," the U.S., France, and Britain now have the first substantial leverage to deploy when negotiations begin today with a suddenly defensive Ahmadinejad government. Obama should ratchet up the pressure on the Iranian government by moving from a strategy of engagement to one that combines continued negotiations, tough new inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, and the threat of much more powerful sanctions. Given the risk of war with Iran in the next one to two years, the administration owes it to the nation to exhaust diplomacy. If talks fail, the U.S. will then have much greater credibility to argue for tougher international sanctions against the regime because it would have gone the extra mile for peace. The writer is a former U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs.