Middle Eastern foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration the biggest arms sale in American history, which was an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The package represents a considerable improvement in the offensive capability of the Saudi armed forces. The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on June 12, 2009. Candidates included Ahmadinejad, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the former Prime Minister of Iran, and Mehdi Karroubi, a former Speaker of the Iranian Parliament. There are reports that the upcoming election had influenced deliberations about the "timing for potential Iran Talks." Following the 2009 Iranian election protests Obama said: "'In 2009 no iron fist is strong enough
2009 Mir-Hossein Mousavi presidential campaign been receiving discouraging messages from "the higher officials", a hint possibly at the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and/or the then President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Mousavi was considered as one of the possible candidates of the reformist alliance to run in the Iranian Presidential election, 2005. However he officially turned down the invitation of a number of parties in the reformist alliance on October 12, 2004, after a meeting with President Mohammad Khatami and the two other high-ranking members of the Association of Combatant Clerics, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha. Mousavi ran as an independent Principled Reformist candidate. Although he is