Obama to Iranians: ‘The world is watching and inspired’
Published: June 15, 2009
Updated 1 year ago
The United States said Monday it was “deeply troubled” by the escalating violence in Iran which has flared since the disputed election victory of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
President Obama, speaking to reporters after a meeting with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, said “It would be wrong for me to be silent on what we’ve seen on the television the last few days.”
“[What] I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was,” the president added.
The State Department and the White House both expressed concern about claims of irregularities, but stopped short of branding the elections as fraudulent, although they did call for the rights of free expression to be respected.
“We are deeply troubled by the reports of violent arrests and possible voting irregularities,” said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
“We’re concerned about some of the treatment of demonstrators, and we’re calling for the Iranian authorities to respect the right of people to express themselves peacefully.”
He added Washington was closely watching the situation unfolding in Iran.
Aboard Air Force One, as President Barack Obama headed to Chicago for a speech on healthcare, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also expressed disquiet about the election results.
“Obviously we continue to have concern about what we’ve seen. Obviously the Iranians are looking into this, as well,” Gibbs said.
He also appeared to hint that whatever the ultimate outcome of the post-election political showdown in Tehran, Washington was still committed to a diplomatic effort to thaw frozen US-Iranian relations.
“I think what’s important is the concerns that we have about their nuclear weapons program, and the concern we have about their support for terror isn’t any different than it was on Friday.”
The Obama administration has offered Iran unconditional talks in a bid to ease decades of tensions and mutual mistrust.
The US reaction echoed the concerns being expressed in Europe on Monday, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for “full light” to be shed on the vote results.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Iran must answer “serious questions” about the vote and said the way Tehran handles the post-election crisis could determine its relations with the international community.
The top US officials spoke after a protestor was reportedly shot dead during clashes in Tehran as massive crowds of people defied a ban to stage a rally against Ahmadinejad’s re-election.
A local photographer said the protestor had been shot with a bullet to the head and that several more were wounded when violence erupted outside a local base of the Islamic Basji militia, which had been set ablaze.
People were seen fleeing the area as police fired tear gas on protestors, an AFP correspondent said, as huge clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.
The violence flared after Ahmadinejad’s defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi appeared in public for the first time since an election that has sharply divided the nation and triggered a wave of protests and rioting.
With AFP.
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The American military-industrial complex is hungrily awaiting America’s entry into a possible Iran War. Trillions to be made. Too bad for our soldiers.
Only way to slow this down is to prosecute some of the Bush criminals.
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Interesting how the US is so concerned about the violence in Iran while not giving a thought about the kidnapped torture of innocent men/woman/children we have done over 8 years. Maybe the US should look to take care of the American people and stop causing chaos to others. This is like Israel asking that the Holocaust not be repeated while Israel attacks and kills innocent men/woman/children by the thousands in Palestine. Now Palestine can honor it’s dead with their own Holocaust caused by Israel.
The US elections are nothing to be proud of. We lost our right to judge others when we started to ignore the crimes of bush & co. Obama has made lots of promises but not delivered. He is on his way to joining bush as a war criminal.
He is on his way to joining bush as a war criminal.
———————————-
He’s “on his way?”
Obushma is ALREADY a war criminal. As a senator, he served as an accomplice to War Criminals Bush/Cheney. His droning of Pakistan and killing innocent people there was illegal. No, he’s already a war criminal.
We didn’t ignore it, Congress did.
Obama’s carefully chosen words will be very helpful to the cause of those Iranians who want some change in their government.
The US should watch and learn. If this were happening in USA, The police would have already stopped the protests and disallowed the freedom of expression.
Does Obama remember Iran Contra and its “players”? Such as the treasonous little prick “ollie north”? How about that nazi Negrepointe? AND especially the weasel that just got screwed out of the iranian election- Mousavi ? Well,Mousavi was involved in the missile purchase and never received the right missiles. Check it out. No wonder these right wing rats are calling “foul”, they need another puppet to run iran again. Although, really the Moooo-Lah lunatics are in charge. Where were they in 2000 when OUR election was stolen?
The nazis never lost, they just moved..
That’s nice Obama. Of course we all agree. But here’s another message: The world is watching you trying to whitewash the crimes of the Bush criminal cabal.
The whole world watches whatever is on t.v., the world doesn’t get to decide what’s on t.v.. If the world got to decide, their wouldn’t be any leaders or any bullshit, it’s just those few people, those pieces of crap that strive to lead others so they can pet their ego’s.
I wish the media had given this much consideration to anti-war protests in the U.S., any number of them over the past 18 years. They give antiwar protests a sometimes snide, brief mentions with low attendance numbers and then have a shit fit over Iran or Tibet, or places our government wants to possess. It’s hard to me to sit and watch Rachel Maddow shit Iran out her mouth like I am, fucking tv, did she intern at the CIA too? A Much deserved break from torture perhaps. Maybe she should broadcast live from the Caspian sea and do a little story on the U.S. and each country that surrounds it.
Regarding that Rachel Maddow piece of work…
You could turn her off. I don’t listen or watch any of these all-self-important gas bags. Most of them have a head as big as the Los Angeles Basin sitting at a microphone or in front of a television camera. Most of them seem to think the world would stop without them spewing their opinions and really their opinion is no more important than yours or mine. Most of the ones on the so-called “left” are Dem kool-aid drinkers. The ones on the “right” are nuts. So I don’t bother with any of them really.
Too bad the World wasn’t “watching” when rightwing Mexican President candidate Calderon (supported by the Bush Administration at the time) “beat” the leftwing candidate Obrador in a highly contested 2006 election.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0710-01.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/leftists-defiant-as-calderon-is-finally-declared-president-414812.html
Huge rallies for months, detailed evidence of fraud, threats and arrests from the ruling Rightwing Party;
yet President Bush was among the first to call and congratulate “President-elect” Calderon, months before he was declared the winner by the national electoral court.
It all depends on who wins the election: friend or foe.
Anyone to Obama: ‘the world is watching and not yet inspired’
How come Raw Story isn’t picking up items about the anti-Moussavi anti-Western demonstrations outside the French, German, UK and US embassies in Tehran?
Is this deliberate editorial policy?
Yeah Obama, the world was watching on 9/11/01 too, and they know it was an inside job. Americans are the only people who think that the planes that hit the WTCs are what brought it down. The rest of the world knows it was an inside job.
Jeez. Everyone is far too critical of Obama. Politics isn’t beanbag. You can’t just reverse everything Bush has done over the course of 8 years in less than a year. I don’t know how you can call him a War Criminal. He hasn’t done anything yet. Sounds like you’re just mad at the government for the sake of being mad at the government.
9/11 was an inside job, huh. Good luck writing a paper on that.
Considering that Obama isn’t flexing his muscles at Iran, and instead, letting them figure this out on their own, I think you can see a vast change in policy compared to the Bush administration. And honestly, I perceive that as progress.
Bush Family’s Partnership with Killers of Americans: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_09_01_carlyle.html
(3 generations of the Bush family have financed killers of americans)
250+ 9/11 Smoking Guns: http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/911smokingguns.html
STFU and do some research instead of running your mouth.
Yeah it IS really hard to reverse the crimes of the Bush era when he isn’t even trying. The little torture loving scum is going out of the way to fight against bringing those capital criminals to justice!!! Sickening!!!!
And he certainly HAS done something!!!! He’s fighting tooth and nail to protect the criminals from being exposed and prosecuted in our courts right now!!! Do you read the news or what???
How do you know he’s not trying? You’re merely assuming the worst of the situation. All I’m saying is give him some time. He has so many things to tackle which he can’t do all at once. Do you honestly want him to put everything aside just to go after the Bush administration? I don’t see how anything can be done about this at the moment. I don’t see any benefit coming from going after their administration for what they’ve done, especially when our country is in an economic depression. It would merely add to the stress and lead to a lot of unhappy people. I think it’s best to just throw it aside and move on for now. Believe me, I agree with you; the Bush administration was horrible and unjust. However, I feel that there are more important things to look at right now.
I was under the impression that this website was news. That’s a pretty redundent question.
World to Obama: We’re watching YOU allow the worst War Criminals in American history go free! We’re watching YOU fight to allow them to go free! Maybe YOU ought to STFU until those torturers and war criminals have been convicted and sent to prison. Because until then YOU sound like a dirtbag torture loving asshole!!!!