After Iranian authorities announced on Sunday a landslide victory for hardliner Mamoud Ahmadinejad, voters complained of poll rigging and signs of irregularities. Resultanlty, mass protests have continued now for three straight days, leaving at least twenty dead.
Iranian expert Professor Ali Ansari says that utter contempt for the hardline ruling regime has spurred the unprecedented protest movement. In the largest rally since the 1979 revolution, demonstrators offered roses to police officers, walked with green tape over their mouths, and displayed English signs asking: “Where is my vote?”
Despite such upheaval, President Obama has responded cautiously. Administration officials insist that they still intend to engage Iran, even if Ahmadinejad remains in office. Thus, at the Islamic regime’s lowest moment, Obama has offered no support to the opposition, noting only that he “can’t state definitively one way or another what happened.”
