G8 calls on Iran to protect protestors

Foreign ministers at a G8 summit have called on Iran for an immediate end to the post-election violence there that has claimed around 20 lives.

Their statement at the meeting in Trieste followed a presidential election the Iranian opposition said was rigged. Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: “I think there is unity here that it is for the Iranian people to choose their government, but it’s for the Iranian government to protect their people. And the violence that we have seen over the last 10 days – the killings and the beatings – are deplorable and they show a failure to protect their own people.” The demonstrations in Trieste were more orderly than those in Iranian cities since the election earlier this month. In Tehran, the Guardian Council said it had investigated the opposition complaints about the election, and declared it the “healthiest” vote since the 1979 revolution.

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