Candidate Barack Obama promised that if America elected him president, he would offer the Iranian regime a “clear choice”: If Iran did not abandon its nuclear program and support for terrorism, his administration would “step up” the Bush policy of economic sanctions and political isolation. But candidate Obama’s modestly hard line was absent from President Obama’s unprecedented videotaped message to “the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” A kinder, gentler Obama called for “a new beginning” – and committing his administration to diplomacy that “addresses the full range of issues before us,” including Iran’s hot pursuit of a nuclear bomb. Obama thus unilaterally gave Iran a reprieve from one of his own threatened actions – increased political isolation – without Iran doing anything to deserve it by either scaling back its nuclear ambitions or cutting off support for terrorists. These were the Bush administration’s preconditions for resuming diplomatic relations that were severed when Tehran seized hostages from our embassy in 1979.
Three days after the video was released, Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, predicted that a similar overture from Obama to his group was only “a matter of time.” If this isn’t what the skilled communicator Obama has in mind, he’d better let Meshaal know. The video leaves Obama with just one option – economic sanctions – to pressure Iran’s leaders to forgo their nuclear ambitions and withdraw their support of insurgents in Iraq. But if they didn’t do this when the stakes were higher – and included Bush’s implied threat of a military strike – they most certainly won’t do so now. In fact, Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei not only rebuffed Obama’s offer to “seek engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect,” he questioned the veracity of our new president in a speech before tens of thousands of Iranians: “They chant the slogan of change, but no change is seen in practice.”
Walid Phares, a senior analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, worries that Iranians will view the Obama video “as a weakening of the will” to continue the Bush administration’s policy of applying external pressure to force internal regime change. The Bush administration erred in not actively engaging the Iranian people in this effort, Phares told The Examiner. But the Obama administration is making another mistake by “engaging the wrong people.” After the initial salutation, the video “had nothing to do with the Iranian public,” even though they are central to achieving a peaceful alternative to nuclear holocaust, Phares said.
