United Nations Starting to Look United

Rightwingers always like to say the United Nations is weak. Well, it turns out that it's only as weak as the level of U.S. engagement. When Obama appointed Susan Rice as United States ambassador to the United Nations, he designated that position a cabinet position, signifying its importance in the Obama administration. Obama has also stepped up U.S. foreign policy, engaging WITH the world, and now the United Nations is starting to look like it could be a powerful force.

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Direct Talks With Iran

The U.S. is now set to join Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia in talks with Iran about its suspect nuclear program-- if Iran signs on.

WAPO: WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said Wednesday it will participate directly in group talks with Iran over its suspect nuclear program, another significant shift from President George W. Bush's policy toward a nation he labeled part of an axis of evil.

The State Department said the United States would be at the table "from now on" when senior diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany meet with Iranian officials to discuss the nuclear issue. The Bush administration had generally shunned such meetings, although it attended one last year.

"We believe that pursuing very careful engagement on a range of issues that affect our interests and the interests of the world with Iran makes sense," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters. "There is nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon."

In other Iranian news, Hillary Clinton is working to free a journalist accused of spying:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed the Obama administration's concern over reports that U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi, an NPR freelancer, has been charged with espionage, reiterating her call for the reporter's speedy release.

"We are deeply concerned by the news that we're hearing," Clinton said at the State Department. She said the White House was working through Swiss diplomats in Iran for the "most accurate, up-to-date information."

"I will, as will the rest of the department, continue to follow this closely and we wish for her speedy release and return to her family," Clinton said. NPR

Dennis Ross Appointed Iran Adviser

Dennis Ross is apparently the supreme negotiations expert. He favors direct negotiations with Iran.

Reuters: U.S. foreign policy veteran Dennis Ross has been appointed special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Gulf region, including Iran, and southwest Asia, the State Department announced on Monday.

"This is a region in which America is fighting two wars and facing challenges of ongoing conflict, terror, proliferation, access to energy, economic development and strengthening democracy and the rule of law," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement announcing the appointment.

Ross, a veteran of Arab-Israeli negotiations when Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, was president, will advise on both Iran and the broader Middle East region.

The Obama administration is reviewing U.S. policy towards Iran. It is looking into ways of engaging Tehran on a broad range of issues from seeking cooperation in Afghanistan to giving up sensitive nuclear work that the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb.

Here's what Ross wrote for Newsweek in Nov. 2008:

It's not too late to stop Iran from getting the bomb. Tehran clearly wants nukes for both defensive and offensive purposes. But it's not clear the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would sacrifice anything to get nuclear weapons. In fact, history shows that his government responds to outside pressure, restricting its actions when it feels threatened and taking advantage when it judges it can.

Iran needs more rewards for reversing course:

Iran has continued to pursue nuclear weapons because the Bush administration hasn't applied enough pressure—or offered Iran enough rewards for reversing course. The U.N. sanctions adopted in the past three years primarily target Iran's nuclear and missile industries, not the broader economy. Hitting the economy more directly would force the mullahs to make a choice. Iran has profound economic vulnerabilities: it imports 43 percent of its gas. Its oil and natural-gas industries—the government's key source of revenue, which it uses to buy off its population—desperately require new investment and technology. Smart sanctions would force Iran's leaders to see the high costs of not changing their behavior.

Here's what he wrote in 2006 on the advantage of negotiating directly with Iran.
An interview with Ross:

Ross gives a speech at South Florida Temple in 2008. He talks about Obama:

Iran Gets To Work On Attacking Obama

Can Obama get into office soon enough?

CNN: Ali Larijani said on Saturday Obama should apply his campaign message of change to U.S. dealings with Iran.

"Obama must know that the change that he talks about is not simply a superficial changing of colors or tactics," Larijani said in comments carried by the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

"What is expected is a change in strategy, not the repetition of objections to Iran's nuclear program which will be taking a step in the wrong direction."

In his first post-election news conference Friday afternoon, Obama reiterated that he believes a nuclear-armed Iran would be "unacceptable." He also said he would help mount an international effort to prevent it from happening.

Larijani said U.S. behavior toward Iran "will not change so simply," but that Obama's election showed internal conditions in the United States have shifted.

He added that Iran does not mind if the United States provides other Persian Gulf countries with nuclear technology, but "you should know that you cannot prevent the Islamic Republic (from reaching its goals in the nuclear field)," according to the news agency.

Obama cautioned Friday that it had only been a few days since the election and that he was not yet in office.

"Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through," Obama told reporters.

"But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won't be until January 20th."