Bush Endorses Reform in Iran

In an unusual warning to Iran’s government, President Bush on Friday issued a strong statement of support for that nation’s reformers and pro-democracy students and pledged that they had “no better friend than the United States” in their efforts to bring about change.

The White House statement was a direct message to both reformers and hard-liners in the raging dispute that played out again this week when the largest student protest in three years led to clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tehran, according to U.S. officials. More than 140 people were arrested, Iranian media reported.

“As we have witnessed over the past few days, the people of Iran want the same freedoms, human rights and opportunities as people around the world,” Bush said in the statement. “The government should listen to their hopes.”

He charged that the “unelected people” who really rule Iran have silenced or ignored the overwhelming call for reform evident in recent presidential, parliamentary and local elections.

In blunt language, Bush said the ruling Islamic clerics instead have produced “uncompromising and destructive” policies and engaged in harassment, intimidation and abuse to perpetuate their control and reap “unfair benefits.”

“Iranian students, journalists and parliamentarians are still arrested, intimidated and abused for advocating reform or criticizing the ruling regime,” Bush said. “Independent publications are suppressed. And talented students and professionals, faced with the dual specter of too few jobs and too many restrictions on their freedom, continue to seek opportunities abroad rather than help build Iran’s future at home.”

The unexpected White House statement followed a leading Iranian cleric’s resignation this week from his religious post to protest autocratic rule that he said has spawned corruption, despair, political disillusionment, public rejection of religion and a “hellish gap between rich and poor.”

“I flee what I can no longer tolerate,” wrote Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, the Friday prayer leader in the city of Esfahan.

Taheri has particularly high standing because he was a protege of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a thinly veiled warning, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that religious dissidents would face the same fate as another leading cleric, who years ago was banned from all religious activities and put under house arrest for criticizing the regime. Iranian media reportedly were banned from publishing stories or editorials about Taheri.

After four years of a slow and tentative thaw in relations between Tehran and Washington, Bush in his State of the Union address in January listed Iran as part of an “axis of evil.” The administration has regularly charged that the Islamic Republic supports Middle East extremists and is developing weapons of mass destruction.

But Friday was believed to be the first time the White House had openly stated support for Iran’s reform movement.