Google (Link) - AFP (June 27, 2009)
US President Barack Obama admitted Friday Iran's "outrageous" crackdown on demonstrators would hit his hopes for direct talks, and escalated a heated public row with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Obama, who came to power vowing to engage US enemies, including Iran, sharply rejected Ahmadinejad's demands for an apology for his previous comments on the post-election turmoil, in a further stiffening of US rhetoric.
"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama said after talks at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"I think we're going to have to see how that plays itself out in the days and weeks ahead," said Obama.
Obama said however that the talks compered by the international P5-plus-1 group over Iran's nuclear program would likely continue.
He argued that despite speaking out with a "unified voice" on the violence in Tehran, the world needed to recognize that the prospect of Iran with nuclear weapons was a "big problem."
"My expectation would be... that you're going to continue to see some multilateral discussions with Iran."
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been authorized by UN Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany -- to discuss the issue with Tehran.
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