White House divided on Iran protests

DEBKAfile Special Report

June 24, 2009, 11:03 AM (GMT+02:00)

Differences between President Barack Obama and Vice President Jo Biden were reported – and denied – shortly after the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the US and Britain of orchestrating riots designed to annul the presidential elections in his Friday sermon at Tehran University, on June 19.

Biden is quoted by some sources as criticizing Obama for playing down the differences between the Iranian incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the rival opposition leader Mousavi in a comment on Tuesday.

Friday, the White House Friday denied differences between Obama and Biden on how to react to the protests. At the same time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been cited with others as criticizing the president for not giving enough support to the street protesters in their campaign against a fraudulent election.

DEBKAfile's Washington sources report that the US president is believed by some circles to be soft-pedaling his encouragement for the protesters so as not to burn bridges to his planned dialogue with the regime in Tehran. This would be an exceptionally serious allegation against the president.

In a more direct statement in response to Khamenei's sermon, President Obama told broadcaster CBS Friday: "I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made, that the government of Iran recognize that the world is watching. "And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and is not."

Earlier, the White House stated: "All Iranians should be free to demonstrate."

Both statements may bring the Obama administration a step closer to a falling-out with the Iranian regime.

The White House's comments landed on the dissident movement's leaders at a critical moment of decision.

Confronted by the supreme leader's warning to stop the "illegal street riots" or take the consequences - with the suggestion that they were treasonable - the protesters could have done with more wholehearted US support for their cause, although Congress voted 405-1 to condemn Tehran's crackdown on the demonstrators. The House also condemned the Iranian government's interference with Internet and cell phone communications.

Friday night, there was still some confusion about plans for a large-scale protest rally Saturday. Many foreign media reported that Mousavi, a second election loser Mehdi Karroubi and the reformist leader, former president Muhammad Khatami, would address a million-strong demonstration in Tehran's Revolution Square regardless of Khamenei's threat.

Later, Mousavi's aides denied any such plan, leaving many questions up in the air about the protest movement's next steps seven days after the disputed election.