Analysts advise caution with Khamenei

• Tweet

SYRACUSE, N.Y., March 9 (UPI) -- Don't read too much into statements from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei offering praise to the U.S. president, Iranian experts warned.

Khamenei said in comments posted on his official Web site that it was "good" that U.S. President Barack Obama was warning about talk about war with Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Israeli TV after returning from Washington that "it's not a matter of days or weeks but also not of years" before resorting to military action to counter a perceived nuclear weapons' threat from Iran.

Obama, however, said there was a "window of opportunity" to work with the Iranians, something the ruling cleric said was "wise."

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a political science professor at Syracuse University, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Khamenei's comments could be interpreted as "an opening" for dialogue with the West. But Hosein Ghazian, a visiting scholar at Syracuse, said "we have to be careful" when trying to interpret the intentions of the supreme leader.

Iran had parliamentary elections last week, the first elections since demonstrations greeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in the 2009 presidential contest. Supporters of the supreme leader trounced Ahmadinejad's backers.