Saudi weekly Al-Majalla published an editorial (Jan. 31) by Dr. Mohamad bin Huwaidan, an Emirati writer, noting that Iran “couldn’t help but respond positively to President Obama’s stated desire to deal directly with Iran.” On the same day, the pan-Arab Al Hayat quoted a less-than-overwhelmed Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of both the Iranian Expediency Council and Council of Experts:
Obama, according to Rafsanjani, should take a “rational and clear position” in arriving at a compromise on the Iran nuclear issue. Rafsanjani further criticized as contradictory Obama’s stated position that he would pursue a diplomatic path with Teheran, but that ‘all options remained on the table.’ Bin Huweidan said further that it was “US action in Iraq that brought Iran further into Iraq and Palestine”…and that the US needed “to undertake a new initiative in the area of relations with Iran, this to minimize the impacts of previous failed policies.”
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