topic by
Richard Marvel
7/12/2002 (18:25) |
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Bush says Iranian rulers ignoring voices of people
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Friday expressed solidarity with Iranian students who protested against Iran's Islamic Republic, saying 'their government should listen to their hopes.'
Iranian students clashed with plainclothes security officers around Tehran University on Tuesday during a protest to mark the anniversary of violent student unrest that shook the Islamic Republic three years ago.
It was the biggest show of student wrath at the slow pace of change in Iran since widespread demonstrations three years ago and similar unrest in the western city of Khoramabad.
Iran's students, once the powerhouse behind the 1979 Islamic revolution, were galvanized by calls for reform in the mid-1990s. But since 1999 the movement has been battered by prosecutions, imprisonment and factional feuds.
'As we have witnessed over the past few days, the people of Iran want the same freedoms, human rights and opportunities as people around the world. Their government should listen to their hopes,' Bush said in a written statement.
The United States and Iran have been bitter enemies since student militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Bush has listed Iran as part of an 'axis of evil' with Iraq and North Korea, accusing them of attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction. A senior U.S. official in May called Russia's help in building a nuclear power plant in Iran the single biggest proliferation threat that exists today.
U.S. officials also believe Iran is supporting Islamic extremists and plays a role in Middle East turmoil.
There has been a relentless struggle in Iran between hard-liners and moderates and U.S. officials are divided about whether fundamental democratic change can ever occur.
Bush has frequently criticized the Muslim clerics who run Iran and the protests gave him another opportunity.
'In the last two Iranian presidential elections and in nearly a dozen parliamentary and local elections, the vast majority of the Iranian people voted for political and economic reform. Yet their voices are not being listened to by the unelected people who are the real rulers of Iran,' Bush said.
Iranian students, journalists and parliamentarians are still being arrested, intimidated, and abused for advocating reform or criticizing the ruling system, the U.S. president said. Many Iranian students and professionals are seeking jobs abroad.
'Meanwhile, members of the ruling regime and their families continue to obstruct reform while reaping unfair benefits.'
Bush noted a long history of friendship between the United States and the Iranian people.
'As Iran's people move towards a future defined by greater freedom, greater tolerance, they will have no better friend than the United States of America,' he said.
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