Obama Makes Little News About Iran: Clerical Conflict.

Obama said Tuesday about the unrest and deaths in Iran that he condemns “these unjust actions” and that the U. S.  is not interfering. He said the Iranian people are trying to have a debate. He called accusations by Iran of U. S. interference “patently false.” He said “the Iranian people can speak for themselves.”

He said “those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history” and Iran must be “governed by consent.”

He called what has happened in Iran as “profound” Obama said “we have provided a path” for Iran back into the community of nations. He spoke of monitoring the situation. He said numerous times the international community is “being witness” to what is happening in Iran.

In what appeared to be a planted question and rehearsed answer Obama called on a representative of the Huffington Post who asked “under what condition he would accept Ahmadinejad’s election” as legitimate. Obama spoke of international norms for dealing with decent and what is being seen on the internet violates those norms.

Obama rebuffed a question of what took him so long to be “appalled and outraged” by events and violence in Iran saying he been consistent. When ask is Iranian diplomats are still welcome at 4^th of July ceremonies - Obama said that was up to the Iranians. Obama refused to “spell out consequences for Iran” asying we do not know how this is “going to play out.”

A backstage struggle among Iran’s ruling clerics burst into the daylight  last weekend when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the country’s most powerful men.

State run media said the daughter and four other relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani were later released but their arrests appeared to be a clear warning from the hard-line establishment to a cleric who may be aligning himself with the opposition.

Tehran’s streets fell mostly quiet for the first time since a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, but cries of “God is great!” echoed again from rooftops after dark, a sign of seething anger at a government crackdown that peaked with at least 10 protesters’ deaths Saturday.

The killings drove the official death toll to at least 17 after a week of massive street demonstrations by protesters who say hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole his re-election win. But searing images posted online - including gruesome video purporting to show the fatal shooting of a teenage girl - hinted the true toll may be higher.