Powell: 'Keep out of Iran feud'
BBC News 7.3.2003
Iran's leaders reacted angrily to US support of the protests The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said America should not get involved in Iran's internal politics.
In a radio interview, he said Washington should stay away from the "family fight" between the country's reformists and conservatives.
He also reminded listeners that Iran was a democracy and President Mohammad Khatami had been freely elected.
Washington upset Iran in June when President George W Bush welcomed a wave of protests against the country's religious leadership.
President Khatami was elected... not in an American kind of election but an election that essentially tapped into the desires of the people
US Secretary of State Colin Powell
The protests have since subsided and Mr Powell said in his interview that the United States should sit back and observe further developments.
He told the Washington radio station WMAL: "The best thing we can do right now is not get in the middle of this family fight too deeply.
Deep concerns
"Remember that the president of Iran is freely elected. President Khatami was elected by his people, not in an American kind of election but an election that essentially tapped into the desires of the people."
Several thousand people took to the streets in cities across Iran to protest against the conservative clerical establishment and the reformist President Khatami, who is accused of betraying hopes for change.
At the time, President Bush described the protests as "the beginnings of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran", prompting an angry response from Iranian leaders.
Mr Powell stressed that Washington still had deep concerns about Iran, one of President Bush's "axis of evil".
But he added that it was best for the US to see if the protest movement would pressure Iran's political and religious leaders "to see whether this causes them to realise that they are going down a loser trail".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3041426.stm "If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me”
He also reminded listeners that Iran was a democracy and President Mohammad Khatami had been freely elected. So... when that election took place, did women and non-muslims have the right to vote, did people have freedom of speech and religion, and was the press genuinely free?
Seems like it's hard to call it a democracy if women are second class citizens because of radical muslim views, and are not free to vote (and not free to travel to the polls without male minders.) And can an election be "free" if the press is so afraid of the mullahs that it has to self-censor to avoid having its journalists imprisoned, or is censored by or owned by government? I don't know what the conditions were during the election, but I would be very surprised indeed if the radical mullahs that took over left the press totally unshackled.