Obama condemns Iran over violent response to protests

“But we must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people,and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place.”

He also said that comments by Iranian officials blaming the US,Britain and other Western nations for inciting the protests were “patently false” and a “tired strategy to use old tensions to scapegoat other countries” that will not work. “Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.”

His comments,the toughest he has issued on Iran’s post-election turmoil,followed a decision by Iran’s most powerful oversight council to rule out overturning the results of the disputed presidential election,Iranian state television said Tuesday.

A day after announcing that the number of votes in 50 cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there by three million,the Guardian Council,which oversees the elections and legislation in Iran,said there was not enough proof of fraud to overturn the election,which official results gave to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in a landslide.

“Therefore,there is no possibility of an annulment taking place,” Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei,the spokesman for the Guardian Council,declared,according to the website of Press TV,Iran’s English-language state television satellite broadcaster.

Authorities have been steadily arresting a top tier of leadership in the moderate camp associated with Mir Hossein Moussavi,who placed a distant second in the June-12 presidential elections and has since emerged as the head of the mass protest movement that has taken to Iran’s streets over the past 10 days. A large group of clerics and politicians supports Moussavi,among them reformist former president Mohammad Khatami. But since June 13,many of Khatami’s leading associates have been detained,according to a website run by expatriate Iranians.

The crackdown may be spilling over into the powerful oil ministry,responsible for the lion’s share of the nation’s revenue. Deputy oil minister Akbar Torkan was replaced on Monday,apparently for political reasons,Reuters reported. Beyond that,opposition newspapers in Iran reported Tuesday that four of the six soccer players on the national team who had worn green arm bands in solidarity with the protesters had been dismissed.

On the diplomatic front,Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain announced Tuesday that his country had expelled two Iranian diplomats,a response to Tehran’s expulsion of two British diplomats on Monday.