Thank you for the question.
When I talk about dialogue, obviously dialogue should have a framework, not just for the sake of talking to Iranians, but to establish a framework where you are looking for something and they are looking for something in order to advance the cause.
If you look at the discourse of the candidates--those three, again, putting Ahmadinejad aside, because we know what his position is--the three are talking about the necessity to talk to the international community about the nuclear issue. All of them, including Ahmadinejad, are in favour of mastering the technology. This is a right, they say: based on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, this is a right. Many people, including Mr. Obama, I believe.... On the way here I was reading the headline that Senator Kerry also is in favour of enrichment for Iran. It means there are rights, there are obligations.
What is absolutely important, really, is engaging Iranians in a very frank, very open—not clandestine, not as it has happened sometimes in the past—dialogue, where you air your concerns and you ask Iranians to put on the table whatever they have as sources of concerns, and you put yours. Then you talk based on those concerns.
I believe you asked if there is any trace or tangible evidence to show they are on the defensive. Yes, you can do that. You can easily find it. This is why it's really crucial to read what they say and what they do. If you look at the discourse of Khamenei's leaders during President Bush's time, whenever Bush said something positive—in rare moments, maybe—Khamenei immediately rejected any positive step that George Bush might have proposed. If you compare Khamenei's position to what Obama is talking about, you see that he is in a very uncomfortable position. For example, recently in the city of Mashhad, before the campaign got into this heated phase that we see, he was intervening. He was actually pre-empting what Obama was going to say in Cairo. He said that the words were good, because he had heard Obama before. He had heard the message he sent to the Iranians for the Iranian New Year. He said the words were good, they were pleasant, but they needed some action.
In other words, if you compare this with what he used to say about the American presidents prior to Obama, it was a simple refusal of any kind of dialogue with those people, because for him—as I mentioned earlier—he loved George Bush, he loved Reagan, he loved McCain when he said bomb, bomb, bomb, because that was really music to his ears.
So yes, you can see that if you look closely at what they say. They are clearly in a very difficult situation. You can see that.