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| Iran must choose its future path, says Barack Obama | |
| 2009-11-04 | |
IRAN "must choose" whether to open the door to opportunity and prosperity, US President Barack Obama said in a statement marking 30 years since the storming of the US embassy in Tehran.
"It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity and justice for its people." Radical Islamist students captured the city-centre US embassy on November 4, 1979 - just months after the Islamic revolution toppled the US-backed shah. The students, who took 52 American diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days, said they were responding to Washington's refusal to hand over the deposed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Iran's top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri today said the capture of the US embassy 30 years ago by Islamist students was a mistake. "The occupation of the American embassy at the start had the start of Iranian revolutionaries and the late Imam Khomeini and I supported it too," he said. "But considering the negative repercussions and the high sensitivity which was created among the American people and which still exists, it was not the right thing to do." | |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #8 Oh wait, he's going to make a speech about them and use the power of his words to change their behavior. This is what we have for a leader....heaven help the Republic! |
| Posted by: NoMOreBS 2009-11-04 18:06 |
| #7 It already has, moron. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2009-11-04 14:19 |
| #6 Is there a difference between "Present" and "You decide"? |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-11-04 13:26 |
| #5 And what is Obama going to do after Iran decides ? Throw his teleprompter at Hamenai ? If I was the Mullah's I will be laughing my head off at his impotent speaches. The price of inaction in the face of evil will be paid later with the blood of millions of people on both sides. If he cant act before they have nukes what makes you think he will be able to after they have a couple ???? |
| Posted by: Elder of Zion 2009-11-04 10:49 |
| #4 Oh, and I almost forgot: I'm sure the mullocracy never considered the consequences, and they are rethinking their choices right now in an emergency session. |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-11-04 10:30 |
| #3 I'm sure the Iranian mullocracy is shaking in their curly-toed slippers right now. Might even have them converting to Judaism real soon to avoid the consequences. |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-11-04 10:29 |
| #2 IRAN "must choose" whether to open the door to opportunity and prosperity (a) Iranian elites already have prosperity---and they couldn't care less about the rest of Iranians. (b) Talk of prosperity coming from the man busy turning USA into an economic cripple? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-11-04 03:56 |
| #1 Iran must choose its future path They know their future path already. Itsa big bada boom. The only thing is yet uncertain is whether within or without. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2009-11-04 02:11 |