THE TELEGRAPH: Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has called on "responsible" leaders to assert control in Iran and said tough UN sanctions were turning the screw on the military-backed regime.Short of an explicit call to the Iranian people to revolt, Mrs Clinton's comments represented a sharpening of rhetoric as she increasingly seeks to portray Iran as a military dictatorship.
Mrs Clinton said the military, especially the elite Revolutionary Guard, was wielding more and more power to prop up a regime struggling to maintain its legitimacy since last year's "very flawed" presidential elections.
"And I can only hope that there will be some effort inside Iran, by responsible civil and religious leaders, to take hold of the apparatus of the state," she told ABC News.
"When you empower a military as much as they have to rely on them to put down legitimate protests and demonstrations, you create a momentum and unleash forces that you do not know where they will end up.
"And I know that that's a concern of people inside Iran. We read reports coming out of Iran. And it is something that would be even more distressing for the Iranian people." >>> | Monday, September 20, 2010
ABC NEWS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sits down with Christiane Amanpour.
ABC NEWS: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joins Christiane Amanpour on "This Week."
