PRESIDENT Barack Obama has issued his strongest condemnation to date of the suppression of opposition protests in Iran but declined to identify possible international consequences for the Iranian regime.
Mr Obama told a White House press conference that he was “appalled and outraged” by the brutal response to street protests in Iran, describing as “heartbreaking” the killing of 26-year-old student Neda Soltani at a demonstration in Tehran last Saturday.
“I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost,” the president said.
“I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place.”
Mr Obama has faced harsh criticism from conservatives, including his former presidential rival John McCain, for his cautious response to events in Iran.
Leading neo-conservative commentators William Kristol and Stephen Hayes this week accused the president of becoming “ a de facto ally” of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
“The Iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future,” Mr Obama said yesterday.
“Some in the Iranian government are trying to avoid that debate by accusing the United States and others outside of Iran of instigating protests over the elections. These accusations are patently false and absurd. They are an obvious attempt to distract people from what is truly taking place within Iran’s borders. This tired strategy of using old tensions to scapegoat other countries won’t work anymore in Iran. This is not about the United States and the West; this is about the people of Iran, and the future that they – and only they – will choose.”
Opening a dialogue with Iran is a centrepiece of Mr Obama’s foreign policy and he insisted it was too early to say whether recent events in Iran would force a change to that strategy.
“We are going to monitor and see how this plays itself out before we make any adjustments about how we proceed,” he said.
The US president’s comments on Iran have been more restrained than those of other western leaders, notably French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who last week described the contested Iranian presidential election as a “tragedy”, adding that “the extent of the fraud is proportional to the violent reaction”.
During yesterday’s press conference, Mr Obama defended his proposals to reform the US health care system, arguing that a new, publicly run insurance plan would help to lower costs and improve the performance of private health insurance.
“There is no doubt that we must preserve what is best about our healthcare system, and that means allowing Americans who like their doctors and their health care plans to keep them. But unless we fix what is broken in our current system, everyone’s healthcare will be in jeopardy.
“Unless we act, premiums will climb higher, benefits will erode further, and the rolls of uninsured will swell to include millions more Americans,” he said.
“When it comes to healthcare, the status quo is unsustainable. Reform is not a luxury, it is a necessity. And so I hope that Congress will continue to make significant progress on this issue in the weeks ahead.”