My take on what I just saw on CNN's coverage of Obama's Iran statement.
I feel Obama has just given the most significant statement of his Presidency.
Aside from saying that he was troubled by the violence he has seen, the beatings and shootings of innocents engaged in peaceful protests, and the electoral irregularities, he was able to affirm some core values such as freedom of speech and dissent.
He noted that he was inspired by the actions of the voters, the Iranian people, especially the Iranian youth.
And he said he still would engage Iran around the issues of its nuclear program and spread of terrorism in the region.
I think he gave the moderates, the greens in Iran tacit acknowledgement when he said it was up to the Iranian people to choose their leaders.
He also, with that same statement acknowledged the integrity and independence of Iran as a country.
He was not condescending, but he was firm.
I don't think he could have done any better. He won't be accused of overstepping or meddling in Iranian affairs, and he won't look like he is standing in judgement. He simple looked and sounded engaged and prepared to take constructive action when appropriate as events unfold.
This was a tough needle to thread politically, but he got the job done.
Update: COwoman has graciously provided a YOUTUBE link below the fold.
Full Transcript via TORTA:
TRANSCRIPT of Obama's statement:
Obviously all of us have been watching the news from Iran... and I want to start off by being very clear that it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be; that we respect Iranian sovereignty, and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran, which – sometimes – the United States can be a handy political football (or discussions with the United States).
Having said all that.. I am deeply troubled by the violence that I’ve been seeing on television. I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to epaecfully dissent.. all those are universal values and need to be respected. And whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they’re rightfully troubled. My understanding is that the Iranian government says that they are going to look into irregularities that have taken place. We weren’t on the ground, we did not have observers there, we did not have international observers on hand, so I can’t state definitively one way or another what happened with respect to the election, but what I can say is that there appears to be a sense on the part of people who are so hopeful and so engaged and so committed to democracy, who now feel betrayed. And I think it’s important that, moving forward, whatever investigations take place are done in a way that is not resulting in bloodshed and not resulting in people being stifled in expressing their views.
Now: with respect to the United States and our interactions with Iran – I have always believed that, as odious as I consider some of President Ahmadinejad’s statements, as deep as the differences that exist between the United States and Iran on a range of core issues, that the use of tough, hard-headed diplomacy, diplomacy with no illusions about Iran and the nature of the differences between our two countries, is critical when it comes to pursuing a core set of our national security interests. Specifically, making sure that we are not seeing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East triggered by Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon; making sure that Iran’s not exporting terrorist activity. Those are core interests not just to the United States but, I think, to a peaceful world in general. We will continue to pursue a tough direct dialogue between our two countries and we’ll see where it takes us. But even as we do so, I think it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we’ve seen on the television over the last few days, and what I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was. And they should know that the world is watching, and particularly to the youth of Iran, I want them to know that we in the United States do not want to make any decisions for the Iranians but we do believe the Iranian people and their voices should be heard and respected.