Officials: Clinton Pressed Obama to Take Harder Line on Iran

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged President Obama for two days to toughen his language on Iran before he did so, and then was surprised when he condemned Iran's crackdown on demonstrators last week, the Washington Times reported administration officials as saying.

At his June 23 news conference, Obama said he was "appalled and outraged" by Iranian behavior and "strongly condemned" the violence against anti-government demonstrators. Up until then, Obama and other administration officials had taken a softer line, expressing "deep concern" about the situation and calling on Iran to "respect the dignity of its own people."

Behind the scenes, the officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing internal deliberations, said Clinton had been advocating the stronger U.S. response, but the president resisted. When he finally took her advice, the aides said, he did so without informing her first.

This was the first known example of awkwardness between the two former rivals for the Democratic nomination for president since they made up following Obama's election. The disagreement also gave some insight into the Obama administration's foreign policy decision-making process five months into its term.

The officials said they were familiar with the language Obama used in his news conference because it was sent to the State Department a day earlier, but that Clinton did not know until he uttered the words that he would choose that moment to make them public.

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