In a recent interview with the AP Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that President Barack Obama's promise to work with other countries is getting results.
Nearly a year after becoming the top U.S. diplomat to the global body, Susan Rice said in an interview this week with The Associated Press and AP Television News that challenges remain, though she sees evidence every day "that the world is responding differently and much more openly to the United States of America."
I admit, I'm forced to agree with Ms. Rice. The world is responding much more openly. Wasn't it just last week that President Obama was openly snubbed by China at the world climate summit in Copenhagen? And how about those Iranian's? Didn't we just this past year learn that Iran had been operating previously undisclosed nuclear enrichment plants? And then there were those ballistic missile tests by both Iran and North Korea. As I recall, neither country made a big secret of them. Here is what came out of the AP interview with Ms. Rice on the subject of Iran.
Looking ahead to 2010, the question of what to do about Iran's nuclear program looms large.
On Tuesday, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration and the West for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.
Rice said Iran has a choice between engagement or increased pressure which could include new sanctions.
"In the new year, absent some significant changes in the posture of Iran, I think we believe that the time will be ripe for serious consideration of additional pressures," she said.
But she said the United States will also have to deal with many other challenges next year.
The most notable other challenge that the Obama administration will face next year is ramming through a health care reform bill that a clear majority of Americans oppose. In the meantime Iranian citizens are being shot down in the streets by the repressive regimes with whom Obama seeks engagement.
More than 300 arrests were confirmed, amid reports of violent clashes in cities and towns across Iran.
In a departure from previous incidents, opposition demonstrators retaliated furiously against the security forces. Eyewitnesses described how many officers were attacked and stripped of their uniforms and beaten with their own batons. A video posted on YouTube showed one security agent being surrounded by an angry crowd while other footage showed a police officer with a bloody head wound after being mobbed.
Plumes of smoke billowed above Tehran after numerous police cars and motorcycles were set ablaze, and the city's main boulevards were covered in stones that had been used as missiles.
Security forces opened fire on demonstrators gathered in some of the city centre's main squares and thoroughfares after failing to disperse crowds with tear-gas and warning shots.
"When people started attacking them, the forces were ordered to kneel, take aim and shoot at people directly," said one witness, Muhammad, 25, an economics student. "We were on Kolaj bridge and people started attacking. The security forces began shooting at people. I saw one guy with his brains blown out."
On a positive note, the AFP reports that the Obama administration condemns the suppression. Our condemnation comes from a National Security Council spokesman.
White House condemns 'suppression' in Iran(AFP) – 16 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The White House on Sunday strongly condemned "violent and unjust suppression" of civilians in Iran, following a fierce government crackdown on opposition protests.
The blunt statement contrasted with careful initial responses by the White House following post-election protests in Iran in June and came as the nuclear showdown between Tehran and world powers reached a critical point.
"We strongly condemn the violent and unjust suppression of civilians in Iran seeking to exercise their universal rights," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement.
"Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States.
"Governing through fear and violence is never just, and as President Obama said in Oslo -- it is telling when governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation."
It's not surprising that the president didn't take time off from his Hawaiian vacation say it himself. An unkind word toward the Iran's murderous theocracy could upset his strategy of engagement.
Many nations felt that former president George W. Bush's administration did not have a strong commitment to working with other countries, and they complained that U.S. power as the world's richest nation and a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council was disproportionate.
Yes, the strategy is working. If engagement is intended to weaken the US and reduce American influence, it's working perfectly.
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