I'll take each of those.
The first one is my view on the approach that the U.S. is taking. I think the approach is probably, in reality, more nuanced than public perception might have it. There has been a sense of wanting to reach out to the Iranians. As President Obama has said, it is so that they could join the family of nations and take on the responsibilities that go with that. There's a message: join us, engage with us, work with us, but if you do so, abide by your responsibilities as a nation, and that means no more genocidal rhetoric, no more human rights violations, no more supporting terrorist organizations, no more development of a nuclear weapons capacity. While the rhetoric may not be as harsh as the Bush administration's axis of evil policy, I think in reality it's equally strong in wanting Iran to comply with its obligations under international law.
I think the response to the video you talked about has been quite telling. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has in response gone back to some of the rhetoric you've heard for years: that Israel is a cancerous tumour that needs to be removed from the Middle East, and nuclear weapons could be the solution. That's of a piece with Ahmadinejad's rhetoric—let's call it Ahmadinejad's incitement—and it shows that there is a deep vein of hatred toward Israel and the west that runs through this regime. It starts at the top and goes down.
I don't know if the video or the words that President Obama has used to try to soften the U.S. stance will ultimately lead to changes, because I'm seeing the same kinds of patterns, even though they may be draped in different language. I think the potential benefits of the approach may have more to do with U.S. legitimacy than with anything else. At bottom, things aren't changing all that much. What is changing is the perception of the United States. They have made a good-faith effort to reach out to Iran, rather than rattling a sabre. This is good if the United States is going to assume a position of leadership in the world, which I absolutely think it has to.
I come before you today as an American to tell you that I believe that over the last eight years my country abdicated its responsibility as a leader on the international plane. I am optimistic that we are going to take up that responsibility again and lead. I think the Obama administration's policy toward Iran tells the world that this is what we're going to do, and I think that's a good thing.