An Iran-watcher cautions me about my reaction to yesterday's NYT story on how Obama might approach talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Although I sloppily declared the the precondition of demanding a halt in enrichment prior to talks "was dropped," that was going too far. The story said only that the administration is discussing the possibility of allowing Tehran to continue enrichment as negotiations begin. And since this proposal has not yet been offered to Iran, much less decided on for certain, it's premature to say, as I did, that this choice was made without the kind of substantially toughened E.U. sanctions that Dennis Ross has written about.
--Michael Crowley