Signs of a thaw...

I'd mentioned in this post that Iranian president Ahmadinejad had conveyed his congratulations to president-elect Obama on winning the US election; I wasn't aware at the time that this was the first time since 1979 that an Iranian president had congratulated the winner of a US presidential election.

Perhaps it's the first sign of a thaw in relations between the two countries? Obama has stated:

"We met with Stalin, we met with Mao. The idea that we can't meet with Ahmadinejad is ridiculous. This is a bunch of Washington-insider conventional wisdom that makes no sense. We should not run from this debate. We should have it."