It seems to be Iran’s wish to stay isolated in the world and even invite an air attack against its nuclear facilities.

Since coming to office, President Obama has offered to reach out his hand to Iran if the Islamic Republic would “unclench [its] fist.” Iran has decided to unclench the fist, though instead of an open hand of a new rapport the country has decided to give Obama the finger.

Obama personally reached out to Iran in his inaugural address, a New Year’s address and in his speech in Cairo. He even went to so far as to publicly declare that Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear technology. The State Department invited Iranian officials to a regional summit on Afghanistan and Iranian diplomats the world over were invited to attend Fourth of July celebrations at U.S. embassies around the world [that invitation has since been redacted in light of the harsh crackdown on protesters.]

The point is that President Obama has put a lot on the line to reach out to Iran in the face of domestic critiques whom accuse the young president of being naive about the Islamic Republican which they state is not interested in diplomacy. Instead of accepting Obama’s generous hand, Iran’s fanatical band of mullahs has decided to play the game of proving Obama’s critiques right and thus making it less likely that rapprochement efforts will continue.

With ever kind word Obama has uttered, the mullahs have responded with confrontational words that Obama has not said enough and must apologize for past misdeeds against Iran [Is Iran ready to apologize for its past misdeeds?].

Even after Obama stayed silent about the protest, again in the face of domestic critics, the mullahs had the temerity to accuse the United States of meddling. Now that thug Ahmadinejad is up to this:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told President Obama on Thursday to avoid interfering in Iran’s affairs and demanded an apology from the American leader for striking the same critical tones as his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Obama has paid in strong criticism for doing the exact opposite, but the Holocaust-denying extremist has the temerity to ask Obama for an apology. This is just further proof that Ahmadinejad is mentally unstable, an extremist who is not to be taken seriously.

The reality may be that Iran’s mullahs have no real interest in a rapprochement with the United States and the West no matter the degree of diplomatic engagement. One of the United States’ Iran expert, a native Iranian himself and I am very proud to say a professor of mine, Shaul Bakhash recently wrote:

“[Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah] Khamenei is also skeptical of calls to engage America — a skepticism that is shared by the powerful Revolutionary Guards and the security agencies upon which the supreme leader relies for his continued hold on power. Hostility to America and standing up to “the Great Satan” have become pillars of hardliner ideology; any normalization of relations would rob hardliners of a convenient bogeyman. They fear that the trade, investment and tourism that would follow restoration of diplomatic ties would result in unwelcome changes at home.”

Ahmadinejad sure is behaving in a manner that suggests he is opposed to any reconciliation.