When Barack Obama was still a senator from Illinois, he declared that should he become the president of the United States, ‘he would be willing to hold direct talks, without preconditions, with the president of Iran.’

He will now get the chance to do just that this week when he meets the bombastic and re-elected president of the Islamic republic at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The US government, though, will make sure that Obama and Ahmadinejad do not get near each other.

According to one senior White House official, “Having Ahmadinejad meet Obama — that’s just not going to happen. You saw the events of the Iranian election and its aftermath. We were watching the behavior of the regime. While seeing that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a nuclear reality that has to be dealt with, it’s hard not to be affected by what we saw.”

Add to that are the fact that Ahmadinejad’s presidential legitimacy is still being questioned by some of his countrymen and that he has been bashing Israel too hard lately. Certainly, these are not quite pleasant things to talk about in a chance conversation between the two leaders.

But Ahmadinejad has always loved the spotlight and people’s attention. Whatever happens in New York, he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. It will do him a world of good to be seen as an official attendee of a huge UN function. That will look like his legitimacy comes close to being cemented, in the eyes of opposing Iranians and a doubting world. After all, Ahmadinejad has never been short of being bold and daring.

Besides, Obama dreamt of this moment.

Via The New York Times