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Clinton: Iran Protests Are An "Internal Matter"

Internal

I'm getting the quote via Voice of America. Nothing like using the US's flagship public diplomacy outlet - the one that gave hope to hundreds of millions of anti-Communist dissidents - to sell out pro-democracy protesters:

Clinton, appearing at the State Department's daily press briefing, said she did not want to speculate on Iran's political future, but she that the reported recount is unlikely to do much to defuse election-related tensions. "Obviously, they have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process," said Hillary Clinton. "And I don't think that's going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively-small number of ballots. But clearly, these internal matters are for Iranians themselves to address. And we hope that they will be given the opportunity to do so in a peaceful way that respects the right of expression. And it has been my position and that of our administration that we support the fundamental values of peoples' voices being heard, their votes being counted. And we'll have to see how this unfolds."

As a purely internal matter, the regime has begun publicly hanging Mousavi supporters. In 70 BC the Romans crushed a slave rebellion and, as a warning to anyone contemplating further resistance, they lined the roads into Rome with 6,000 crucified slaves. Nice to see that human rights have progressed since then.

The EU is on the verge of pulling out their ambassadors from Iran. According to Clinton, though, US-Iranian negotiations are still on. State has even zeroed out funding for Iranian pro-democracy movements, presumably as a gesture of good will and proof that we're no longer interested in regime change.

How ironic would it be the EU degraded their ties to Iran at the same time that we ramped ours up? And by ironic I mean disgusting.

References:
* Clinton Cites 'Huge Credibility Gap' in Iran Over Election [VOA]
* 6 Mousavi supporters reportedly hanged [JPost]
* EU considers pulling ambassadors from Iran [AP]
* Obama Increases Aid To Arab And Muslim Regimes, Zeros Out Funding For Iranian And Egyptian Democracy Mvmts [MR]

Previously:
* Obama Now Just Making Up Previous Statements About Iran
* Obama WH: Of Course We're Still Desperate To Suck Up To Iran
* Figures: Iran Walks Out On Israeli President During Interfaith Conference

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  • Omri Ceren is a PhD candidate studying Rhetoric at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. He lives in downtown Los Angeles.

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