Khalaji is right. Ahmedinejad is nothing more than the grand ayatollah's mouthpiece and court jester. By demanding that the middleman be eliminated from any negotiations with Iran, we actually set things on an honest course.

Marty -- one might also look to the guide that Dennis Ross set up for this site about six months ago.

www.tnr.com/.../story.html

You think Russia doesn't know? They're helping them set up their nuclear program! Now why would those Russian goons help us solve one of our foreign policy problems? It serves their interests better to have us involved and occupied in the Middle East versus Eastern Europe.  That's why the UN Security Council is a joke, a jury of a criminal's peers.  International organizations are as useless and impossible to function as getting Democrats and Republicans to agree.

"How Obama Might Try to Engage With Iran "?

Here is one possibility that appears to have got his ear:

By Calling for a Nuke-Free Israel

www.commentarymagazine.com/.../43181

" "The Obama administration should make a key priority of persuading Israel to join the negotiations of a universal, verified treaty that bans the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear explosives, commonly called the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). As an interim step, the United States should press Israel to suspend any production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Toward this goal, the United States should change its relatively new policy of seeking a cutoff treaty that does not include verification."

I expect such recommendations will become more frequent in the coming months, and so do some Israeli officials familiar with such matters. There are two reasons for this: 1. Some members of the Obama camp will be receptive to these ideas. 2. The international community has found no way of stopping Iran, and is now looking for new solutions to the problem of a nuclearized Middle East"