Iran's unrest upsetting Obama's outreach

WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- The tumult after Iran's presidential election has stymied U.S. President Barack Obama's diplomatic outreach to Tehran, aides in Washington said.

Goodwill gestures have been derailed because of the harsh crackdown by the Iranian government on people protesting the outcome of the June 12 election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner, USA Today reported Wednesday. In the diplomatic fallout, a U.S. State Department invitation to Iranian officials to a July Fourth picnic has been rescinded.

The turmoil also may set hurdles for Obama's goal of negotiating a nuclear compromise with the Middle Eastern country.

"The crackdown on the protesters has put the possibility of serious negotiations on ice for at least six months, if not for a year," Shaul Bakhash, an Iran expert and history professor at George Mason University, told USA Today. Bakhash's wife, scholar Haleh Esfandiari, was imprisoned in Iran for three months in 2007.

The post-election crises also showed insecurity on the part of the Iranian regime, says Michael Singh, a senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration.

"I think an insecure regime is less likely to be willing to accept that outstretched hand that Obama is offering," Sing said.