In the latest example of US officials sniping at the Iranian government, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs went out of his way to “correct” a Tuesday statement that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the “elected leader” of Iran.
Gibbs said that Ahmadinejad’s inauguration this week was “a fact,” but said that it was not for him to pass judgment on whether or not this made him Iran’s elected leader and added that it was up to the Iranian people to decide if the election was fair.
Iran’s June election was hotly disputed by reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, leading to weeks of violent protests and some of the most serious unrest Iran has seen since its 1979 revolution. The US has said that it will not congratulate President Ahmadinejad on his inauguration.
The US and Iran continue to have an extremely hostile relationship with one another, and while the Obama Administration continues to insist it is open to diplomatic talks with Iran, it remains unclear how this can possibly happen if they won’t even recognize the Iranian president.
Once again, the FedGov manages to come up with yet a new way of perverting the laws of nations and the standards of diplomacy.