Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is calling for the prosecution of Iran’s opposition leaders over June’s post-election political protests. This is the first time Ahmadinejad has made such a demand, publicly joining hard-line politicians and clerics who insist that opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his top allies should be arrested.
The international community continues to balk at Tehran’s political repression. Earlier this month, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated Washington has little choice but to deal with Ahmadinejad’s government. All indications point to continued European-Iranian trade, which last year totaled 14.1 billon euros.
As scholar Michael Rubin observes, if the international community is afraid to confront Tehran for rigging elections and repressing its people, little will prevent it from misleading the West about its illicit nuclear weapons program.
