President Offers Dialogue in Web Video to Iranians

(March 20) -- President Barack Obama issued an online video to the Iranian people today as they celebrate the Persian new year, saying the United States wants them to have more cultural exchanges for their students and better Internet access without censorship.

The Internet clip with Farsi subtitles was Obama's second annual video to Iranians on the occasion of Nowruz, a 12-day festival celebrating the arrival of spring and the Persian new year. Last year, Obama sent a similar message offering direct dialogue with Iran's leaders. The White House released excerpts of today's message late Friday.

Obama again offered engagement with Iran, but blamed its leaders for isolating themselves and their countrymen.

"Our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue stands," Obama said in the video. "Indeed, over the course of the last year, it is the Iranian government that has chosen to isolate itself and to choose a self-defeating focus on the past over a commitment to build a better future."

Formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran broke down after the 1979 hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and the subsequent Islamic Revolution there. Since then, Iran has been ruled by religious clerics who preach anti-Americanism and have recently accused Obama of merely representing a continuation of the policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

In today's video, Obama also pledged to help Iranians achieve a future where they "can exercise their rights to participate fully in the global economy and enrich the world through education and cultural exchanges beyond Iran's borders."

"We will sustain our commitment to a more hopeful future for the Iranian people -- for instance, by increasing opportunities for educational exchanges so that Iranian students can come to our colleges and universities and through our efforts to ensure that Iranians can have access to the software and Internet technology that will enable them to communicate with each other and with the world without fear of censorship," Obama said.

During Iran's disputed presidential election last year, opposition supporters faced a violent crackdown from elite government guards in the streets. Instead they took to the Internet and sites Facebook, YouTube and the micro-blogging service Twitter to express their frustration with Iran's regime. Social networking sites became a protest venue in an otherwise closed country where freedom of expression is tightly controlled. During protests in Iran last June, the U.S. State Department took the unusual step of asking Twitter to delay planned maintenance because of its use by Iranian opposition supporters.

Obama's message also comes as Washington and its allies garner momentum in their push for a new round of punitive U.N. sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Tehran has pushed ahead with higher-level uranium enrichment for reactors it says are for peaceful means, for medical purposes and to generate electricity. But the West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons.

On Friday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin indicated to visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that his country could agree to more sanctions on Iran, the state news agency RIA reported. Russia and China, which both have the power to veto any U.N. resolution calling for such measures, had been urging more dialogue with Tehran rather than immediate sanctions.

"We are working with the international community to hold the Iranian government accountable because they refuse to live up to their international obligations," Obama said in his video message, referring only obliquely his administration's push to punish Iran.