OBAMA AND THE IRAN CRISIS Why Washington Is Playing it Safe By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington

Obama And The Iran Crisis: Why Washington Is Playing it Safe - Gregor Peter Schmitz, Spiegel: "In Washington the implications of the current escalation in Tehran for Obama and his closely watched Cairo speech to the Islamic world are now being discussed. Ahmadinejad's apparent triumph at first looked like a setback for the US president. Critics who regard Obama's outreach to Iran as politically naïve felt vindicated. Leverett [Flynt Leverett from the think tank New America Foundation] for one called such public diplomacy 'a waste of time.' 'What is going to matter is the substance of your policy,' he said. 'If you don't put substantial offers on the table, all the nice speeches of the president won't change anything.' But the images of demonstrations coming from Tehran could also provide support for the White House's approach, suggesting that the president, with his offer of a new dialogue, has directly reached ordinary people -- including Tehran's active bloggers, who are thought to number up to 100,000."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,630923,00.html