Who Knew Iran Would be the One Demanding Preconditions?

International relations can necessarily require the cloaking of intentions, particularly when dealing with enemy regimes. Simply put, it is unwise to tell everyone exactly what you are doing, what your alternate courses of action are, and everything you might be willing to do to reach a desired outcome. You do not want your enemies to know what you are up to.

This is why nations use the terms "no course of action have been ruled out" or "no response is off the table" so frequently.

This, if the Guardian is to be trusted, is a method of foreign relations that the Obama administration would like to throw out. Hope and change have come to the state department.

Officials of Barack Obama's administration have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks, the Guardian has learned.

The US state department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected on 4 November last year. It is in reply to a lengthy letter of congratulations sent by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on 6 November.

Diplomats said Obama's letter would be a symbolic gesture to mark a change in tone from the hostile one adopted by the Bush administration, which portrayed Iran as part of an "axis of evil".

It would be intended to allay the ­suspicions of Iran's leaders and pave the way for Obama to engage them directly, a break with past policy.

State department officials have composed at least three drafts of the letter, which gives assurances that Washington does not want to overthrow the Islamic regime, but merely seeks a change in its behaviour. The letter would be addressed to the Iranian people and sent directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.

Emphasis mine.

I want the Iranian leadership suspicious of our intentions. I want them to think we have taken no course of action off the table. I want them using their resources figuring out what we are doing, pumping money into wasted areas, preparing multiple contingency plans.

Barack Obama's stroll through Wonderland is doing little but making Ahmadinejad bolder.

Iran's president has responded to an overture by the new US president by demanding an apology for past US "crimes" committed against Iran.

The US "stood against the Iranian people in the past 60 years", Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during an address in the western region of Khermenshah.

"Those who speak of change must apologise to the Iranian people and try to repair their past crimes," he said.

The Iranian president is now demanding apologies from an America that, he believes, is now being led by a weaker statesman. He is taking full advantage. While Barack Obama has made it clear that he would be willing to speak with anyone without preconditions, Ahmadinejad is not so inclined.

Obama will issue the sort of non-apology apology that leftists are known for, the type of statement that is easily interpreted two ways, one way which allows The Obama to ridiculously deny his apology could be seen as weakness, and another interpretation that Ahmadinejad will use to wave in front of his people lending him the political credibility that he is sorely lacking at home. This, timely enough, before he stands for reelection in several months.

The best thing that could have happened to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad politically was the election of an inexperienced American president. The surging pro-west dissident population of Iran has not been done any favors by the voters of the west.

h/ts to Power Line and Jules Crittenden