But probably mostly carrots. “Obama vows tough diplomacy with Iran,” from AFP, December 7 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US president-elect Barack Obama vowed “tough but direct diplomacy” with Iran, offering incentives along with the threat of tougher sanctions to disarm the Islamic republic’s nuclear drive.
“We need to ratchet up tough but direct diplomacy with Iran,” he said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC program “Meet the Press.”
As president from January 20, Obama said he would make clear to Tehran that the nuclear program was “unacceptable,” along with its support of militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and its “threats against Israel.”
Obama, whose offer of direct talks with Iran represents a break with three decades of US foreign policy, promised a “set of carrots and sticks in changing their calculus about how they want to operate.”
Carrots would include economic incentives to the cash-strapped oil producer and greater access to the international trading system, he said….
Yep, that’ll end their jihad against Israel, all right.