Barack Obama & Iran

OBAMA FOR USA. As a candidate, Mr. Obama announced that he was willing to talk directly with Iran about its nuclear program, after years of resistance by Mr. Bush, whose policy was to shun direct talks with Iran. In office, Mr. Obama, while sharing the same goal of stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons, has taken steps toward having his administration join discussions with Iran and other nations about Tehran's nuclear program.

In March, Mr. Obama reached out with a video to the Iranian people on their New Year's holiday addressing their country as the "Islamic Republic of Iran," words his predecessor avoided. Later that month, Mr. Holbrooke met briefly with Iran's deputy foreign minister on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan.

In April, administration officials said they were working with European allies to prepare proposals that would drop a longstanding American insistence that Tehran rapidly shut down nuclear facilities during the early phases of negotiations over its atomic program.

The proposals, exchanged in confidential strategy sessions with European allies, would press Tehran to open up its nuclear program gradually to wide-ranging inspection. But the proposals would also allow Iran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks. That would be a sharp break from the approach taken by the Bush administration, which had demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities, at least briefly to initiate negotiations.

The proposals under consideration would go somewhat beyond Mr. Obama's promise, during the presidential campaign, to open negotiations with Iran "without preconditions." Officials involved in the discussion said they were being fashioned to draw Iran into nuclear talks that it had so far shunned. It was not initially clear he would be willing to allow Iran to continue its fuel production, and at what pace. But European officials said there was general agreement that Iran would not accept the kind of immediate shutdown of its facilities that the Bush administration had demanded.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said he was preparing a new proposal to resolve disputes with the West over Iran's nuclear program, opening the door to talks with the United States.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threatened crippling sanctions against Iran if talks failed and it did not end its nuclear program. "We are also laying the groundwork for the kind of very tough ... crippling sanctions that might be necessary in the event that our offers are either rejected or the process is inconclusive or unsuccessful," Mrs. Clinton told the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran remained high over Iran's conviction of an American journalist it accused of spying for the United States, among other matters. On May 11, though, in a turnabout, an Iranian court released the journalist, Roxana Saberi, reducing her eight-year sentence to a two-year suspended sentence. Her release removed an obstacle to President Obama's opening to Iran but illustrated the volatility of the Iranian government.

President Obama, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on May 18, said that he expected to know by the end of the year whether Iran was making "a good-faith effort to resolve differences" in talks aimed at ending its nuclear program, signaling to Israel as well as Iran that his willingness to engage in diplomacy over the issue has its limits.

The Obama administration said on June 14 that it is determined to press on with efforts to engage the Iranian government, despite misgivings about irregularities in the re-election of President Ahmadinejad.

But as tens of thousands of Iranian protesters took to the streets in defiance of the government in Tehran, officials in Washington were debating whether President Obama's response to Iran's disputed election was too muted. Mr. Obama was coming under increased pressure from Republicans and other conservatives who said he should take a more visible stance in support of the protesters.

Even while backing the president's approach, senior members of the administration, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, wanted to strike a stronger tone in support of the protesters, administration officials said. Other White House officials counseled a more cautious approach, saying harsh criticism of the government or endorsement of the protests could have the paradoxical effect of discrediting the protesters and making them seem as if they were led by Americans. Mr. Obama largely followed that script, criticizing violence against the protesters but saying he does not want to be seen as meddling in Iranian domestic politics.

As the Iranian government cracked down on protests, in a spurt of violence on June 20 that according to state television ended in at least 10 deaths, President Obama called the government's reaction "violent and unjust." Quoting Martin Luther King Jr., he warned again that the world was watching what happened in Tehran. On June 25, as protests essentially ended in the face of severe government pressure and repressive tactics, President Ahmadinejad accused Mr. Obama of behaving like President Bush toward Iran and said there was not much point in talking to Washington unless Mr. Obama apologized.