I blogged on Saturday about the leaks coming from our State Department that the US would apparently acquiesce to the Iranians on nuclear enrichment.

Well, Iran is just thrilled with that idea as you can imagine and the headline in one of their papers was The United States capitulates to the nuclear goals of Iran."

Michael Rubin adds some other information:

Dennis Ross is a skilled diplomat and often argues that diplomacy is the best tool to utilize with Iran, but, to protect U.S. national security, Washington should lay the groundwork so that U.S. diplomats can negotiate from a position of strength.

So far, though, the Obama administration has done the opposite. Ray Takeyh, Ross's Iran advisor, told the Iranian press early last year that “Iran has the right not to suspend [enrichment]” (Source: Etemaad, Jan. 30, 2008), a statement which undercuts Ross's negotiation position if, indeed, the Obama administration is serious about holding the Islamic Republic to three U.N. Security Council Resolutions demanding a halt to Iranian enrichment.