Obama: Respect freedom of speech
Photo: AP
Violent clashes in Iran
Photo: AP
President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt a "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran's postelection response.
Violence Continues
Dudi Cohen
Reformist candidate Mousavi calls on country's highest legislative authority to annul election due to rampant evidence of tampering. Meanwhile thousands of his supporters clash with police in central Tehran, suicide bomber kills at least one at mausoleum of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini
"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."
Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous.
"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.
"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."
Obama also cited civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
"I believe that," the president said. "The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian people's belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."