Bait & Switch in Persia

Iranian riot policemen stand guard outside the British embassy in Tehran on June 15, 2009 during a protest by supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against European interference in the Islamic Republic’s latest election results. EU foreign ministers expressed ‘serious concern’ at Tehran’s crackdown on opposition protesters and called for a probe into the conduct of the June 12 presidential election. Photo: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images.

This is, I think, a telling protest. While the opposition is rallying in central Tehran, the regime retreats to the time-honoured tradition of rallying the masses against perfidious foreign interference. In that sense, the twin protests illuminate the contrasts between those looking to Iran’s future and those rooted in the comfortable, if inadequate, certainties of the past.

Nevertheless, this also highlights the difficulties confronting foreign governments when it comes to responding to this weekend’s tumult: stay silent and you risk legitimising the fraudulent election; speak up and you risk fostering the impression that the opposition are stooges of western “imperialism”.