http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/02/27/it-time-obama-meet-ahmadinejadThe two-day visit by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, to Syria and his warm meetings with his Syrian counterpart as well as with the leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas have ruffled many feathers in the US, Europe and Israel.
Although they said much about the future of the region, including the end of the 'Zionist regime', the anti-Israeli gathering has sent a primarily strategic not polemical message: We stand united - an attack on one of us is an attack on all.
A deterrent message to both Israel and the US, it comes against the backdrop of increased war speculation in Israel and mounting pressures to pass a new round of tougher sanctions against Iran.
It is also a wake up call for US diplomats who reckoned that Washington's rapprochement with Damascus, including the reopening of its embassy, should lead to a severing, or at least cooling, of Syrian relations with Tehran.
But while such public posturing has not deterred Israel or worried Washington in the past, it does complicate attempts to isolate Iran or its allies.
Diplomatic assault, military preparations
Since the White House shifted its Iran strategy from accommodation to confrontation, Washington's coercive diplomacy has been going at full speed.
The Obama administration has been lobbying the Middle East and the world's influential capitals in the hope of isolating Iran and passing another UN Security Council resolution that would include biting sanctions against Tehran.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, escalated US rhetoric against the Iranian regime during a visit to the Gulf where she warned of a Revolutionary Guards takeover and the militarisation of the Iranian government.
General Petraeus made a similar visit to the Gulf and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, travelled to Russia, followed by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to convince Moscow to abandon Iran.
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Russian hesitance, Chinese objection
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Anxious Saudi, aggressive Israel
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US bold, Iran confident
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In other words, has the Obama administration truly extended a hand or unclenched its fist for the sake of a peaceful resolution to the Iranian Middle East impasse?
The answer is an unequivocal NO.
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talking is so much better then killing
women and children of the world vote for talking
there are more women in the world then men. its past time for us to assume our power and stop the killing.