The Guardian reports that the State Department is drafting a response from President Obama to Iran, to respond to a lengthy letter of congratulations sent to him by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on November 6. The Guardian says the heart of the response will be to assure the iranians that the U.S. does not seek regime change in Iran. I predicted this in a speech on
November 10: "Regime change—aiding internal groups to overthrow the Iranian government—was never fully embraced by the Bush administration nor any government of Israel. In both countries, there were a handful of advisers who thought regime change could succeed, but they failed to convince Bush, Sharon or Olmert that it was an achievable goal. Therefore, Rosen predicted that Obama would take regime change off the table altogether, and in a forceful way. In fact, Rosen asserted that explicitly repudiating regime change as an option might be one of the dramatic steps Obama can take to distinguish his policy from that of Bush, without undermining the Europeans, the Arabs, or the Israelis."