Jake Tapper reports:
The White House has not issued a statement expressing support for the protestors declaring the election illegitimate. But neither has anyone in the Obama administration said a public word accepting the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection.
“We’re reacting to concrete facts,” a White House official tells ABC News. “We’re collecting them still.”
That said, the primary concerns the White House has about Iran are not about free and fair elections. The concerns are: Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and its
support for terrorism.“We have to deal with the Iran that we have rather than the Iran that we wish we had,” says the official.
Admittedly, the White House has to walk a fine line. But perhaps the way to get the Iran we wish we had is to support the Iranian people in getting the Iran they wish they had.
——————————————–
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
I'm not sure how Obama can come out ahead on this one. He's dug a hole by previously being conciliatory toward Ahmadinejad yet now has the opportunity to throw some US weight around to bring Iran back around to a more secular government with real democratic power.
I predict he'll completely miss this opportunity to reconcile with the Iranian people and put US Iranian relations back on track.