Obama:violence has affected dialogue with Iran

By IcejNews

05 Jun 2009

US President Barack Obama said on Friday his hopes for a direct dialogue with Iran over its renegade nuclear program had been affected by what he described Tehran's "outrageous" crackdown on protesters in the aftermath of its disputed presidential elections. "There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks and we don't yet know how… until we see what has happened inside of Iran," Obama told a joint White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Obama also repeated his call for Iran to give up its nuclear weapon ambitions, saying it would be "unleashing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Obama also rejected a demand for an apology from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said the US president was interfering in the Iranian election. "I don't take Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements seriously about apologies, particularly given the fact that the United States has gone out of its way not to interfere with the election process in Iran," he said.

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