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Powell Encourages Iran
Protests - US Not 'Fomenting'
By Arshad Mohammad
| PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Secretary
of State Colin Powell encouraged Iranians on Tuesday to demonstrate for
their rights and dismissed Tehran criticism that Washington was interfering
in its internal affairs. "Our policy is to encourage people to demonstrate for their views," Powell said when asked about Iranian charges that the United States was fomenting the protests. He was speaking to reporters on a flight to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Demonstrations in Tehran against Iran's clerical rulers appeared to die down on their seventh night on Tuesday with uniformed police reining in Islamic militants who attacked protesters with clubs and chains on previous nights. "We are not out there inside Iran fomenting them but if people wish to demonstrate peacefully and demonstrate for their right for a better life that seems to us to be a proper thing to do," Powell said. Iran has blamed the United States for stirring up the unrest and on Monday said it had sent an official protest to Washington for what it called blatant interference in its internal affairs. Powell dismissed such charges. "Iran, as usual, is... just trying to deflect its problems onto others," he said. The United States has applauded the protests as a fight for freedom by the Iranian people. Iran is also under worldwide pressure for it to permit stricter U.N. checks of its nuclear program. The Iranian unrest was first sparked by small student protests against proposed university privatizations, but gained momentum when thousands of ordinary people flocked to the campus after calls by U.S.-based Iranian exile satellite channels. In previous years traditionally politicized students had been largely left to go it alone and the frequent calls for action by the exile television stations had been mostly ignored. Protesters vented most of their anger at conservative clerics who control the key reins of power in Iran, but they also condemned moderate President Mohammad Khatami, accusing him of failing to deliver promised reforms after six years in office. Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. |
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