Word: iran
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...United States is the only country that can convince Iran that it is not as threatened as it thinks it is, and that's crucial to the negotiations [over Iran's disputed enrichment program]," Niblett says. "The Obama Administration is playing it absolutely right: it is determined to convince the Iranians that its goal is not regime change. Any public denunciations could damage Obama's efforts to coax Iran out of its defensive posture." (See pictures of Iran's presidential elections and their turbulent aftermath...
...Obama and his aides have repeatedly said they want to avoid becoming a scapegoat for Iran's leadership. "The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States," the President said in an interview broadcast on Monday morning. "We shouldn't be playing into that." Domestic politics is also playing into the strong rhetoric on the part of European leaders like Sarkozy and Merkel, according to Niblett. "It is in Sarkozy's nature...
...part of Western politicians and journalists. On Monday, it accused BBC's Persian-language station and the Voice of America (VOA) of being "officially the spiritual children of [Benjamin] Netanyahu," the Prime Minister of Israel. "Their aim is to weaken the national solidarity, threaten territorial integrity and disintegrate Iran," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters. "This is the agenda given to VOA and BBC Persian after their budgets were approved by the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament...
...Lawrence Freedman, a professor of war studies at King's College London, says such rhetoric from Iran may force Obama to move closer to the European leaders in toughening his public stance on Iran. "It will become more likely that the U.S. and Europe will find a consensus if the Iranian regime becomes more oppressive, or as their pronunciations of Western interference become more extreme. You can't give credence to those accusations, and you'll need strong rebuttals from both European and American leaders." (See what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's win means for other world leaders...
...Europe in other international crises - most divisive, Europe's reluctance to send combat troops to Afghanistan - the allies are hardly at odds in their basic response to the Iranian election. "There isn't a deep underlying difference - both sides would like to see free and fair elections in Iran," says Niblett. "But there are various factors that have prevented a unified response. And that's O.K. In this regard, Obama should play it differently...