Ahmadinejad's Election and What It Means to the U.S.

Iran held elections this Friday, and although there are already self-proclamations of victory coming from the forerunners in the election, it looks as though the reality is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be bringing home the victory in a landslide and will continue to serve as the president of Iran.

First, I must say that it is wonderful to have a peaceful, seemingly legit election occur in the Middle East region.  It means that the governing body is one that is of the people and one that the people are okay with.

Even if it is not the government that would be most favorable to the Western countries of the world.

Yes, Ahmadinejad has definitely been a hardliner when it came to the politics of Iran and its interactions with the U.S., and it is this positioning that his rivals believed has caused Iran to be alienated from the west and to have a tarnished image in the world.

However, it looks like he will be in to stay, so President Obama will have to assess whether he still stands by his words that he has spoken in regards to Iran: he is willing to sit down and talk with the Iranian leadership without preconditions.

We know from experience that Ahmadinejad wants to continue the develop meant of Iran as a nuclear state, and also that he has his own vision for the future of Iraq that does not necessarily align with that of the U.S.

I do believe this diplomatic approach is a good one and a necessary break from the Bush administration policy of not even sitting at the table until Iran did things the U.S. way.  But seeing Ahmadinejad pretty much re-elected means that the diplomatic approach will be arduous and Iran will be initially skeptical of anything that the U.S. brings to the table as an alternative to developing a nuclear program.

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