Obama: Iran protests could hinder nuclear talks

U.S. President Barack Obama hinted that the Iranian elections and the ensuing violent demonstrations could adversely affect the negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

"My hope is that they continue to see [the U.S. diplomatic effort vis-a-vis the Iranian government] as an opportunity, but obviously what's happened over the past several weeks raises serious questions," he said in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN's '360 Degrees.'

"Given the outrageous violence that we've seen directed against peaceful demonstrators post-election, the crackdown by hardliners against journalists, the raiding of foreign embassies, it's not clear whether or not you have the kind of room in Iran that would walk through the, the door that ... we've left open for them to stand down on nuclear weapons development, and to be able to pursue a more peaceful path with their neighbors and abide by international norms."

The president nevertheless emphasized that the issue of U.S. negotiations with Iran is not a lost cause.

"Well I think that it's still in flux, and what we have to do is evaluate over the next several months both how ... the ... Iranian leadership works through what appears to be still dissension within its ranks. I think it's important for us to recognize that although the ... the prospects of bilateral engagement may have been ... shifted as a consequence of this post-election activity, that we still have a multilateral track with the Europeans and the Russians and the Chinese and others that ... no matter what happened we were going to have to mobilize to help to obtain some sort of serious agreement with the Iranians, and that diplomatic effort is going to continue."

Meanwhile, American Jewish leaders who met with Obama on Tuesday expressed great satisfaction with their discussion. Obama said Israel must "engage in serious self-reflection" regarding the conflict with the Palestinians.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said he and other participants were very impressed by what they heard and left the meeting with a very good feeling. Yoffie told Haaretz Tuesday that the president reassured the Jewish leaders over their concern about recent tensions between the White House and the Jewish community over Obama's criticism of settlement activity in the West Bank.