June 25th, 2009 by Max

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized President Obama saying that he was striking the same critical tones as President Bush in meddling with Iran’s internal affairs. His statements come as three Iranian newspapers reported that only 105 of the 290 members of the Iranian Majles (parliament) who were invited to Ahmadinejad’s victory celebration on Wednesday actually attended. Analysts think that the poor turnout may indicate that many Iranian politicians see the elections as a power grab by the hard liners.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri has continued to criticize the government’s harsh treatment of protesters, warning that if citizens’ voices are not heard it “could possibly uproot the foundations of the government.”

In Washington, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that the U.S. will no longer be inviting Iranian officials to attend Independence Day celebrations at America’s embassies abroad, “given the events of the past many days”. This announcement occurred concurrent with H.Res.579, which called for the invitation to be rescinded, and was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani has written an interesting piece for the Brookings Institution on the economic demographics behind Iran’s opposition movement and how high levels of unemployment have affected the country’s youth.

In an interview with Salon, Hooman Majd argues that the Iranian electoral crisis is not really a “Twitter revolution” and that people are overestimating Twitter’s importance. He likewise cautioned that nobody at the beginning would have believed accusations of U.S. meddling in the uprising, but that these accusations “could start to stick if Obama or Western governments start coming out strongly on one side.”

Majd likewise argues that those who seek to take an aggressive stance on the election and protests are playing into Ahmadinejad’s hands. Majd criticizes neoconservatives who know “nothing about the culture of Iran” and “have no interest in understanding Iran, in speaking to any Iranian other than Iranian exiles who support the idea of invasions–I’ll call them Iranian Chalabis.”

Posted in Congress, Elections, Iran, US foreign policy, US politics |