I think President Obama is taking it the right way, which is acknowledging that things are not going to happen quickly in terms of engaging with Iran.
The United States and Iran have a long history together, and there's a lot of enmity among the Iranian people about the U.S. role in Iran, going back to the overthrow of Mr. Mossadegh and up to the withdrawal of support for the Shah, which led to the current regime.
I do think the Iranian people and the American people have strong, abiding, long-term friendships, so really, it's a question of having more of these kinds of people-to-people exchanges and letting our governments--hopefully--slowly begin to work things out.
I agree completely with Mr. Stork's view that for the Government of Canada, it's really important to raise human rights concerns not just in Iran but also more broadly, because Iran claims, I think wrongly so, that they're being unfairly targeted. I think it's also important to work multilaterally. It's important that there not just be a handful of voices speaking out about these abuses; it's much more difficult for the Government of Iran to reject criticism when it's coming from numerous quarters.
To come back to your question, I think President Obama is taking things cautiously in terms of the discussions. There's a whole host of bilateral issues between Iran and the U.S., human rights being among them. But obviously the nuclear question, Iranian involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Iranian involvement in the broader Middle East, in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, are all issues that, frankly, at some point or another, are going to have to be discussed. But things are in flux in a whole host of ways in the United States as the U.S. copes with the economic crisis. Things are in flux in Iran with the forthcoming elections this June. It remains to be seen how that plays out.
So there are a lot of moving pieces, and I think it's going to take some time. I think that's why a cautious approach for engagement makes sense. I think we have no choice but to persist, and the more people-to-people contact we can have, the better.