Obama: "Stop All Violent And Unjust Actions"

Via Nico Pitney:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples' belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

There may be an on-camera statement coming as well.

I think this is the right thing to do. The Iranian regime escalated through violence and murder, and the President must meet that escalation. Steve Clemons thinks this is Biden's influence, and he's been something of a liberal hawk throughout his career, so that's probably right.

....Sullivan:

2.04 pm. Some attempt at perspective. From what I can tell, the regime has shown a disgusting display of rank violence and murder, but they have not massacred hundreds. The uprising on the streets was also less overwhelming than in previous days, but that's obviously because they knew they could be gunned down. Mousavi is standing firm in demanding a nullification of the election. If the reports of even more intense rooftop shouting are true, then the people of Iran remain determined not to let this moment of democracy be taken from them. So we have the makings of a tense stand-off.

Watching the videos, I'm stunned by how many people are holding up cell phone cameras and taking footage.

The media is doing a better job today.

...opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi says that he has prepared himself for martyrdom.

...As expected, the Iranian regime has twisted this statement and earlier ones into a claim that Obama supports the uprising. Well, they were going to say that anyway. The question was always whether or not they would look like fools for saying it, and whether or not they would deserve the disapprobation of the President. And I think Obama's played this right.