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Obama to Iran's leaders: Stop 'unjust' actions
By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt a "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran's postelection response.
Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs. Yet his comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified, and his latest remarks took direct aim at Iranian leaders.
"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."
Obama has searched for the right tone in light of political pressures on all sides. On Capitol Hill, Congress pressed him to condemn the Iranian government's response. In Iran, the leadership was poised to blame the U.S. for interference and draw Obama in more directly.
Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous, with police seen beating protesters.
"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.
"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."
Protesters in Iran have demanded that government cancel and rerun the June 12 elections that ended with a declaration of overwhelming victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says he won and claimed widespread fraud.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there was no ballot rigging. He warned of a crackdown if protesters continued their massive street rallies.
Then on Saturday, police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in open defiance of Iran's clerical government. Witnesses described fierce clashes after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" in downtown Tehran.
Obama's criticism came one day after both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to condemn the actions by the Iranian government against demonstrators and moves to interfere with Internet and cell phone communications. That was seen in part as a veiled criticism of Obama's response, too.
The president already was on record as saying the United States stood behind those who were seeking justice in a peaceful way. He responded to critics that he hadn't been forceful enough in support of protesters, telling CBS News: "The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do."
That was Friday, before the conflict in Iran appeared to deepen.
Obama has refrained from passing final judgment on the underlying question of the legitimacy of the election itself, although he has expressed "deep concerns" about it.
The president returned Saturday to his theme that the world is watching the way the Iranian government's response.
Obama cited Martin Luther King's statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
"I believe that," the president said. "The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people's belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."
Police clashed with protesters around Tehran immediately after the presidential election and gunfire from a militia compound left at least seven dead, but further force remained in check until Saturday's developments.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1106617.html
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt a "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran's postelection response.
Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs. Yet his comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified, and his latest remarks took direct aim at Iranian leaders.
"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."
Obama has searched for the right tone in light of political pressures on all sides. On Capitol Hill, Congress pressed him to condemn the Iranian government's response. In Iran, the leadership was poised to blame the U.S. for interference and draw Obama in more directly.
Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous, with police seen beating protesters.
"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.
"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."
Protesters in Iran have demanded that government cancel and rerun the June 12 elections that ended with a declaration of overwhelming victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says he won and claimed widespread fraud.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there was no ballot rigging. He warned of a crackdown if protesters continued their massive street rallies.
Then on Saturday, police beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in open defiance of Iran's clerical government. Witnesses described fierce clashes after some 3,000 protesters chanted "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to dictatorship!" in downtown Tehran.
Obama's criticism came one day after both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to condemn the actions by the Iranian government against demonstrators and moves to interfere with Internet and cell phone communications. That was seen in part as a veiled criticism of Obama's response, too.
The president already was on record as saying the United States stood behind those who were seeking justice in a peaceful way. He responded to critics that he hadn't been forceful enough in support of protesters, telling CBS News: "The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That's what they do."
That was Friday, before the conflict in Iran appeared to deepen.
Obama has refrained from passing final judgment on the underlying question of the legitimacy of the election itself, although he has expressed "deep concerns" about it.
The president returned Saturday to his theme that the world is watching the way the Iranian government's response.
Obama cited Martin Luther King's statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
"I believe that," the president said. "The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people's belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."
Police clashed with protesters around Tehran immediately after the presidential election and gunfire from a militia compound left at least seven dead, but further force remained in check until Saturday's developments.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1106617.html
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Carol Dreeszen on -
I guess I may have to eat some of my words saying that Obama don't really care about the Iranian people and that he supports the leadership on Iran now...or did he do this to make "HIS appearance" at home look good!? How do we really know why he does something after all of his lies and deceipt??
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Permalink Reply by Herb Kelley on -
What a bunch of tight rope rhetoric !
What has Martin Luther King have to do with any of this? The theocracy in Iran will not allow defiant assembly and demonstration any more than China did at Tiananamen Square in 1989 or Russia in Hungary in 1956.
De furher needs to watch what he says....doesn't he realize that he could be confronted with the exact situation in this country as Iran is having if he continues to force the facist programs he is forcing on America? What would his silver tongued egotistical response be to massive demonstration and uprising against his tyrannical government? How would he react?..... How would they program his tele prompter for the situation and justification of his methods?
Rest assured, he would not be able to slough it off to the united nations for another resolution. -
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Permalink Reply by Roberta G on
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He openly lies and gets away with it time and time again. Why should he worry about what he says for his own expediency at the time? Right now is what matters.......these declarations are merely to make him look like he cares......later he knows the kool-aid drinkers won't remember these statements.....when these words come back to haunt him in clips, they will be removed and the masses will never say a word because they will be fed by new lies to keep them content. And those who dissent will be treated as fringe kooks who are rebelling....and he will reign supreme. Don't mistake it, he is no fool. Chilling reality kinda rivets the soul, doesn't it?
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Permalink Reply by Carol Dreeszen on
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Keeping Martin Luther King in the loop of his reasoning is what he wants to try and show all the "blacks" and minorities that he is still looking out for them so they will back him! It's a racist thing that he figures he can use and still get by with because he is half black. It's just another ploy on his part to sucker the dumb ones in society today in this country into believing in him! :-( Throw them a bone like a good dogie!
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