In a CNN interview Tuesday, US President Barack Obama hinted that the post-election violence of the presidential election in Iran lowered chances of bilateral talks between the two countries. “As I said before, given the outrageous violence that we've seen directed against peaceful demonstrators post election, the crackdown by hard liners against journalists, the raiding of foreign embassies, it's not clear whether or not you have the kind of room in Iran that would walk through the door that...we've left open for them to stand down on nuclear weapons development, and to be able to pursue a more peaceful path with their neighbors and abide by international norms,” Obama told Anderson Cooper of CNN.
When asked if he thinks conditions for diplomatic relations have changed, Obama replied, “Well, I think that it's still in flux, and what we have to do is evaluate over the next several months both how...the...Iranian leadership works through what appears to be still dissention within it's ranks.”
He did, however, suggest that multi-lateral talks with Iran were still possible: “I think it's important for us to recognize that although... the prospects of bilateral engagement may have been...shifted as a consequence of this post election activity, that we still have a multilateral track with the Europeans and the Russians and the Chinese and others that...no matter what happened we were going to have to mobilize to help to obtain some sort of serious agreement with the Iranians, and that diplomatic effort is going to continue.
“So, you know, what we agreed to at the G8 was that we would re-evaluate at the end of August, end of September, how the Iranian government is responding, and my hope is that they continue to see this as an opportunity, but obviously what's happened over the next several weeks raises serious questions.”
