Cantor: Obama must take “strong public” stance on Iran

President Barack Obama remained cautious Tuesday about not wanting the U.S. to be viewed as “meddling” in the hotly contested Iranian election, but Culpeper’s Congressman called for tougher talk from the commander-in-chief in light of reported violence and suppression on the streets of Tehran.

“President Obama must take a strong public position in the face of violence and human rights abuses,” said Republican Whip Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, in a statement Monday.

He said the U.S. had “a moral responsibility” to be the leader in opposing “Iran’s extreme response to peaceful protests.”

Tens of thousands of pro-reform protesters marched for a second straight day in Iran Tuesday following a disputed presidential election Friday that claimed incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the overwhelming victor.

Iran’s state radio reported seven people were killed in Monday’s protests. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, the re-formist candidate said to have lost the election, asked supporters Tuesday, via his Web site, to “not fall into the trap of street riots” and to “exercise self-restraint.”

Monday, the Iranian regime banned foreign journalists from covering the escalating situation.

Cantor, in his statement, said the U.S. stands with the people of Iran “in their struggle to participate in a democratic election.” He said Iranians deserve the right to freely assemble and voice their opposition to the election’s “questionable outcome.”

Further, Cantor said, Iran’s clerical regime has made it clear that it plans to move its nuclear program forward. “The United States cannot trust the aspirations of a nation that is a state-sponsor of terrorism,” he said.

Cantor said the president and his administration must work with Congress “to do everything in its power to deny Iran nuclear weapons.”

Obama has maintained the past few days that America will respect Iran’s sovereignty and that it is up to the Iranians to decide who their next leader is.

However, the president said he was “deeply troubled” by the violence in Tehran he’s been seeing on the television.

“I think the democratic process — free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent — all those are universal values and need to be respected,” Obama said Monday.

Moving forward, he said, whatever investigations into the election are conducted must be “done in a way that is not result-ing in bloodshed and is not resulting in people being stifled in expressing their views.”  Obama said the U.S. would continue to pursue “a tough, direct dialogue” with Iran about the nuclear weapon issue.

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