Khamenei Tells Obama Chuck You Farley

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed President Obama's videotaped overture yesterday. In a speech aired on Iranian state TV, Khamenei said that Obama was not "genuine" and that U.S. policy remains "hostile" to Iran.

Ali Akbar Javanfekr, a spokesman for President Ahmadinejad, said, "There is a need for more than talks. Obama needs to show he believes what he is saying."

Javanfekr then proceeded to spell out a list or what one might call a set of preconditions that must be met before direct talks can proceed.

These included the U.S. dropping sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, apologizing for its support of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. Navy downing an Iranian airliner over the Strait of Hormuz in 1988 and even the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 which brought the Shah of Iran to power.

But the U.S. has formally apologized and admitted the coup was an error. In 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "The coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development, and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs."

Remember this was at a time when the Clinton Administration had begun to drop sanctions against Iran and President Khatami was being portrayed as a friend to Washington. Yet the Iranians wanted action and not just words. What kind of action? The Iranians did not say.

Presently, the Iranians neglect the not so insignificant matters of seizing our embassy in Tehran and taking hostages, creating Hezbollah which killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1982, the Iranian fighters who have killed U.S. soldiers in Iraq and its desire to go nuclear so it can wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

I am sure the Left will say the Iranians need time to trust us or that perhaps Obama is showing the world the United States is a reasonable party. From where I sit, Obama instead came off as weak and his efforts only legitimize a totalitarian regime.