Is Iran Recount Aimed At Keeping Status Quo?
The top U.S. negotiator on Iran under President Bush said Tuesday that a decision by Tehran to recount some ballots in last week's disputed election is a positive step, but that it is ultimately aimed at keeping incumbent leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.
Former ambassador Nicholas Burns, in an interview for NPR's Morning Edition, also praised the current administration's handling of the crisis. Burns said President Obama has been doing an "effective job" of talking up the moderates while making it clear that Washington would not meddle in Iran's internal affairs.
"President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see an aggressive series of statements from the United States that would put the U.S. in the center of this, and I think President Obama is avoiding that quite rightly," Burns said.
Obama said he respects Iran's sovereignty and that "this is not a dispute for the U.S. to be the center of. It's up to Iranians to decide who Iran's future leaders will be," Burns said.
Obama "demonstrated clear sympathy for the reformers," the former ambassador said. "I think the fact that he's been low-key about it and the fact that he is saying denial of rights and violence are of a concern to him, and that he was inspired by the reformers, is, I think, the right thing to say."
Burns' review of Obama's handling of the situation was largely echoed by Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the senior GOP member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said Tuesday on CBS's The Early Show that it would be unwise for the United States to get any more involved than it is.
However, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), appearing on NBC's Today show, charged that Obama wasn't taking a tough enough stance. McCain, the president's former rival on the campaign trail, said Obama "should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights."
The former ambassador's comments came on the same day that Iran's Islamic leadership, known as the Guardian Council, said it is prepared to conduct a limited recount of disputed presidential elections. Iran's state radio also reported earlier Tuesday that seven people were killed during clashes in the Iranian capital the previous day — the first official confirmation of deaths linked to the largest protests and street battles since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In Friday's vote, Ahmadinejad was declared the victor over his popular reformist rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi. Burns called the recount a "surprising decision" that points to the fact that the government is "obviously reeling" at the backlash from the election, seen by many as having been rigged to keep Ahmadinejad in power.
"That fact that the Guardian Council, which is pro-establishment and generally pro-government, would agree to count some of the ballots is a good step forward," Burns said. "But I think the government may be deploying a strategy to placate the reformers, to keep them off the streets, but probably the Guardian Council intends to preserve Ahmadinejad's victory, I am sorry to say."
He said the reform movement made up of Mousavi's supporters is fundamentally different from reform movements of the past.
Mousavi's supporters are "not just young people, not just students, but people of all backgrounds and people of all ages. The strength of that movement was made evident" during Monday's protests, he said.
Seven Slain As Iran Agrees To Recount Some Votes
In Focus
Iran's opposition announced that another day of street demonstrations would be held Wednesday.
Despite official warnings and a ban on street demonstrations, some Web sites allied with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said supporters should gather in a downtown square in the late afternoon on Wednesday.
The announcement raised the prospect of further clashes with security forces.
Iran's powerful Guardian Council on Tuesday rejected a call to annul last week's disputed election that gave incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term, but the 12-member body agreed to conduct a selective recount, a move unlikely to placate angry reformists.
Iran's state radio also said seven people had been killed in shooting that erupted after people at an "unauthorized gathering" Monday night in western Tehran "tried to attack a military location."
Meanwhile, thousands of pro-government demonstrators gathered in the capital's Valiasr Square in a demonstration aimed at countering the tens of thousands of fist-waving protesters who have denounced Ahmadinejad's claim to a landslide re-election. Since Friday's vote, Iran has seen the largest protests since the 1979 revolution that swept the Shah from power and installed an Islamic government.
Despite the unrest, Ahmadinejad went ahead with a trip to Russia for a regional security summit, choosing to play down the protests and put on the appearance of business as usual.
So far the opposition anger has been focused on the election results, which reformist leader Mousavi claims were marred by fraud and robbed him of victory. Hundreds of thousands of Mousavi's backers poured through Tehran on Monday in a massive show of unity that ended in bloodshed when seven people were killed in a confrontation with pro-regime militiamen.
Also Tuesday, Iranian authorities restricted all journalists working for foreign media from firsthand reporting on the streets. The order allows those journalists to work only from their offices, conducting telephone interviews and monitoring official sources such as state television. It blocks images and eyewitness descriptions of the protests and violence that has followed the disputed election.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Tuesday that President Obama is not speaking out strongly enough against Iran's leadership. On Monday, Obama said an inquiry into the disputed presidential election should go ahead without violence and said he didn't know who rightfully won the Iranian balloting, but that Iranians have a right to feel that their votes matter.
McCain, who lost to Obama in last year's U.S. presidential election, called on the president to turn up his rhetoric.
"He should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights," McCain said Tuesday on CBS.
But Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Obama administration's arm's-length stance is correct.
"I think for the moment our position is to allow the Iranians to work out their situation," Lugar told NBC. "When popular revolutions occur, they come right from the people."
Obama on Tuesday said he believes "something has happened in Iran," with Iranians more willing to question the government's "antagonistic postures" toward the world.
"There are people who want to see greater openness and greater debate, and want to see greater democracy," he said during a Rose Garden news conference. "How that plays out over the next several days and several weeks is something ultimately for the Iranian people to decide, but I stand strongly with the universal principle that people's voices should be heard and not suppressed."
From NPR and wire service reports
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