Barack Obama's honorable effort to engage the Iranian regime has unfortunately fallen on deaf/obstinate ears in Tehran. The Iranian regime has rebuffed all diplomatic and trust building attempts by Obama and the western world to find a negotiated resolution to the Iranian nuclear weapons crisis.
After a year of patiently waiting, Obama's team has clearly changed its tactics and has sent teams of ambassadors to rally support in Arab capitals for a new push for sanctions and pressure on the Iranian regime. The complicated and long history of the US-Israel-Sunni Gulf state cooperation is complicated by anti-US/Israel popular opinion in the Arab world and a lack of good options to confront Iran with force. However, the willingness of the Saudis, and Gulf states to accept US patriot batteries (and the troops that run them) and increased US naval presence in the Gulf and back channel communications with Israel indicates the genuine fear aroused in the Sunni Arab world by the thought of an Iranian nuke.
While I applaud Obama's realization that our myriad Foreign Policy issues cannot be solved with speeches and respect alone, he is entering the dangerous waters of making threats that he might one day have to honor. I continue to believe that Iran cannot simply be appeased and allowed to develop nuclear weapons, the implications of waving big sticks is not something a US president should take lightly
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