Will Obama Listen to Iran’s Bloggers?

Barack Obama extended the olive branch to Iran’s leaders last Friday in a videotaped message praising a “great civilization” for “accomplishments” that “have earned the respect of the United States and the world.” The death of Iranian blogger Omid-Reza Mirsayafi in Tehran’s Evin prison two days earlier was, presumably, not among the accomplishments the president had in mind.
Mr. Obama’s solicitous message, timed to the Persian New Year’s celebration of Nowruz, met a blunt response from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei: “He insulted the Islamic Republic of Iran from the first day,” he said. “If you are right that change has come, where is that change?” To this, soi-disant Iran experts and latter-day Walter Durantys explain that it is merely Mr. Khamenei’s opening gambit in what promises to be a glorious new chapter in Iranian-U.S. relations.
Maybe the experts never got the message about no meaning no. And maybe Mr. Obama forgot that the late Ayatollah Khomeini tried to ban Nowruz, Read more »
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