Various US officials have pointed to the mullahs’ suppression of massive 2009 anti-regime uprisings, strongly criticizing its self-serving attempts to change the direction of Egypt’s revolution.
While delivering remarks at the University of Louisville in Kentucky on Friday, US Vice President Joe Biden issued a blatant warning to the Iranian regime, saying, its attempts “to take advantage of the situation in Europe have only exposed the bankruptcy of their system.”
He challenged the regime to “let your people march, let your people speak, release your people from jail, let them have a voice!”
Biden’s comments were met by loud applause from the crowd White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also said on Friday during a news briefing, “I will say it is remarkable to watch in the region how Iran is dealing with this. We saw I think about a week or so ago they made some provocative statements about what these marches meant. We now know what — how they’re responding to the images that we see in Tahrir Square. They are arresting people in Iran. They are blocking international media outlets. They are turning off the Internet.”
He added, “I think what you’ve seen in the region is the government of Iran, quite frankly, scared of the will of its people.”
He added that a Revolutionary Guards official has vowed to crack down on any potential protests in Iran.
Another US official, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, said, “The recent arrests and effort to block international media outlets underscores the hypocrisy of the Iranian leadership.”
“For all of its empty talk about Egypt, the government of Iran should allow the Iranian people the same universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate in Tehran that the people are exercising in Cairo,” he added.