Obama toughens Iran rhetoric

Until now President Obama has stayed mostly neutral on Iran’s disputed election result. He does not want to leave himself open to accusations from Tehran he is meddling in Iranian affairs. But now Congress has weighed in and, in effect, condemned the president for not speaking out. The Republicans initiated a resolution condemning Tehran’s crackdown on demonstrators.

Eric Cantor, US Republican Congressman said: “We must rally the world around the cause of the Iranian people and I urge the administration, I urge President Obama to follow the lead of this House, to speak out on behalf of the Iranian people and their quest for freedom and human rights.“Meanwhile Iranian exiles have been staging more demonstrations against last week’s re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In Paris they held up placards reading “end the dictatorship.” One demonstrator said: “It is very difficult to communicate with Tehran at the moment. They have cut off a lot of mobile ‘phones and when we call at a fixed time we sometimes get the busy signal. “Or when you say certain key words you get cut off. “As far as the Internet goes they have reduced the connection speed so much we cannot transfer any pictures, only sentences and words.”

There were similar protests in Cologne, Germany – Iranian exiles chanting the now familiar “where is my vote?”

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tags: Barack Obama, Crisis, Iran