Israel Matzav

Obama adviser David Axelrod on Iran

Obama adviser David Axelrod appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday morning. Here's the segment where they discussed Iran. Let's go to the videotape.



Here's more from the JPost.

"Let's be clear that we didn't meddle in the election in Iran," Axelrod said. "The dispute in Iran is between the leadership in Iran and their own people, and plainly, Mr. Ahmadinejad thinks that by fingering the United States, that he can create a political diversion. So I'm not going to entertain his bloviations that are politically motivated."

He said Ahmadinejad's accusations are meant for domestic consumption and to quell unrest after his re-election that his opponents call a fraud.

Axelrod stressed that the Obama administration's willingness to hold diplomatic talks with the Iranian leadership was not to be regarded as a reward.

"We are not looking to reward Iran. We are looking to ... sit down and talk to the Iranians and offer them two paths. And one brings them back into the community of nations, and the other has some very stark consequences," Axelrod said.

...

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, made similar comments on Sunday, saying that Ahmadinejad is falling back on his government's usual strategy of blaming the West and the US in particular for its internal problems.

"This is a profound moment of change. And what Ahmadinejad says to try to change the subject is, frankly, not going to work in the current context, because the people understand that the United States has not been meddling in their internal affairs," she said.

The legitimacy of the government, while questioned by the people of Iran, is not the critical issue for the US goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability, Rice said.

"It's in the United States' national interest to make sure that we have employed all elements at our disposal, including diplomacy, to prevent Iran from achieving that nuclear capacity," she said.

ALL elements? How about military force?

Stark consequences? Like what? Toothless sanctions?

The problem with this administration is that they are convinced that they can solve all of the world's problems by having long conversations around Mona's dinner table. They cannot or will not understand (aside from their visceral hatred of Israel) that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily conform to their ideals.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:40 PM