Obama Would Talk with Iran
November 2, 2007
Senator Barack Obama, speaking today with a New York Times reporter, said that if he were elected president he would hold direct talks with Iran about their nuclear program and terrorist activities in Iraq. “We are willing to talk about certain assurances in the context of them showing some good faith,” he said, including offering Iran a spot in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and promising that the U.S. would not seek regime change.
Obama received criticism for his statements from other presidential candidates, including Senator Hillary Clinton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mrs. Clinton questioned Senator Obama’s experience, and said that her own ideas toward Iran would not be so open. Mr. Giuliani called Senator Obama’s plan “naïve and irresponsible.” “If we learned anything from the 20th Century,” he said, “I think what we learned is you don’t beg to negotiate with dictators, tyrants and supporters of terrorists. What you do is you develop a position of real strength.”
Senator Obama stated that he thinks “it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hell-bent on regime change, just for the sake of regime change, but expect changes in behavior.”
