Candidate Obama was adamant that a new approach was needed in dealing with Iran. He wanted to talk to them. At first unconditionally then he back away from that, but now, he's back to unconditionally
Tehran offered "comprehensive and constructive negotiations" on Wednesday, but did not mention the key issue of its nuclear programme.
While stressing the offer "does not address our nuclear concerns" the US said it is was ready to "test Iran's willingness to engage".
Now it wasn't but a few days since the IAEA, the UN arm responsible for monitoring nuclear proliferation issues, announced that Iran was not meeting its commitments, and worse, on a path to realizing a nuclear weapon
On Wednesday the US ambassador to the atomic energy agency, Glyn Davies, said Iran had reached ''possible break-out capacity'' - the ability to acquire enough fuel and expertise to complete building a nuclear weapon relatively quickly - if it decided to enrich its uranium to manufacture bomb-grade material....
On Thursday, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear affairs monitor, said Iran would not negotiate further with the major powers about its nuclear program, Iranian news services reported.
The Obama Administration had hoped that such a finding and subsequent response would have resulted in the UN OKing further sanctions on Iran. But again, they miscalculated the usefulness of that particular world body.
RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has all but ruled out imposing new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, brushing aside Western concerns that Iran had made significant recent progress in a bid for nuclear weapons.
Mr Lavrov said he believed that a new set of proposals Iran gave to European nations on Wednesday offered a viable basis for negotiations to end the dispute. He did not believe the UN Security Council would approve new sanctions, which could ban Iran from exporting oil or importing petrol.
But the "new set of proposals didn't include anything about discussing Iran's nuclear program so the Obama Administration decided to go ahead and talk anyway saying "This may not have been a topic that they wanted to be brought up but I can assure that it's a topic that we'll bring up."
Tough talk.
All of this while Russia is clandestinely supplying Iran with advanced air defense missiles not to mention nuclear weapon expertise and equipment.
Additionally, Iran is collecting US weapons and technology on the black market
Iran increasingly is obtaining U.S. military equipment and technology through shipments to Malaysian middlemen that illegally circumvent trade restrictions, according to American officials and analysts.
The U.S. has charged, convicted or sentenced defendants in at least six cases involving Malaysia since August 2008. The shipments have included parts for bombers and items sent to firms linked to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, according to court papers. More Malaysia shipments are under investigation, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
I predict that soon President Obama will discover what his predecessor knew only too well: Iran is not going to negotiate away the nuclear weapons program; Russia is not our friend; the UN is useless; and Europe will continue to do nothing of substance.
That will leave unilateral action.
The question is, what will the President do about that?
And the clock is ticking....
