You can touch the tension in Washington as heart battles with head. One part of Barack Obama’s administration and, one suspects, of the US president, would like to join the international applause for the demonstrators filling Tehran’s streets. Pushing against this Wilsonian reflex is foreign policy pragmatism. As much as it holds up freedom as a universal value, the White House does not want to be seen as calling for regime change.
The strains have shown in the public pronouncements. Mr Obama has voiced concern about the allegations of vote-rigging and the violent reaction of the Iranian authorities to peaceful demonstrations. There have been gentle admonitions about the need for the Iranian regime to respect the democratic process. But there has also been an insistence that Iranians must sort out their own affairs. US meddling, the president has said, would be “counterproductive”.
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