The Washington Post published a rather revealing article on the concerns many European diplomats have about a potential Obama administration's willingness to negotiate directly with Iran about its nuclear program. Obama has pledged to begin direct talks with Iran about suspending uranium enrichment; an activity the U.N. Security Council has said is a prerequisite for any discussions.

"Dropping a unanimous Security Council condition would simply be interpreted by Iran and America's allies as unconditional surrender and America's friends would view this as confirmation of America's basic unreliability," Francois Heisbourg, a Paris-based analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the Post, "A hell of a way to start a presidential term."

With regard to Iran's nuclear program, it would seem that Senator Obama has managed to position himself to the left of European diplomats.

For more on Barack Obama's not-too-clever positioning on foreign policy, with respect to Israel and Iran, see my latest column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I write:

Every time I have traveled to Israel, its military's message was clear: We either need high ground (occupied territories such as the Golan Heights) or high tech (sophisticated weapons).

Military sales and cooperation in developing military technology are vital to our relationship with Israel. The most important cooperative program is missile defense. The worry is not just short-range missiles from Hezbollah, but long-range missiles from Iran and beyond.

Obama, however, has called for the largest defense cuts since the Cold War. He has further stated he will "not weaponize space" and has called for an end to missile-defense development. Yet, at the AIPAC convention, he said: "We can enhance our cooperation on missile defense." Hmm.

The Europeans' concerns come as Iran has, once again, rejected calls to suspend its uranium enrichment. "There is no logic in the discussion of suspension (of uranium enrichment) and it is not something acceptable," Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said, "Our response to the package of proposals (by the six world powers) and further talks will not be based on the suspension." The statement comes as Europe waits for Iran's response to a package of incentives that would curb Iran's nuclear efforts.