Haaretz
Obama: The future of Iran belongs to the young people
The U.S. President spoke on the occasion of the Iranian New Year; Iran Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke in honor of the new year, saying festivities overshadowed by regional unrest.
By Reuters Tags: Israel news
U.S. President Barack Obama marked the Persian New Year, Nowruz, by reaching out to
Iranian youth, saying the future of their country is in their hands and that he supports them.
"The future of Iran belongs to the young people -- the youth who will determine their own destiny," Obama said on Sunday in a video posted on the White House web site.
"Your talent, your hopes and your choices will shape the future of Iran, and help light the world. And though times may seem dark, I want you to know that I am with you," Obama said.
As popular revolts sweep the Middle East, the United States has expressed solidarity with pro democracy activists in Iran.
But Tehran has so far not seen the kind of major demonstrations taking place in other countries in the Mideast and Africa.
When he first took office, Obama signaled an openness to engaging diplomatically with Iran's government.
But tensions between Washington and the Islamic Republic have not abated amid a standoff over Iran's nuclear program and Western sanctions on Tehran.
The United States and its allies suspect Iran is enriching uranium to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for the production of energy.
In a reference to tense relations between Washington and Tehran, Obama said Iranian youth "are not bound by the chains of the past." He also said the demonstrations that have spread
across the Middle East and North Africa were similar to protests in Iran in 2009.
In a separate holiday statement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton restated U.S. support for peaceful demonstrations in the region.
"This year allows us to reflect on recent events in the Middle East," she said.
"We commend the demonstration of peaceful expressions of human rights and dignity we have seen in much of the region."
Iran Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also welcomed Iran's New Year, saying that Iranians' thoughts were with anti-government protesters in Muslim countries who were being violently repressed in a statement Monday.
"We hope that God almighty will immediately relieve the Bahraini nation, the Yemeni nation, and the Libyan nation, and punish the enemies of the nations with his torment," Khamenei said in a televised address.
"What is happening to the people in these countries does not allow one to feel the full extent of the joyfulness of the (New Year) feast," he said.
While voicing support for demonstrators in the region and condemning government repression, Iran has crushed protests at home and jailed scores of demonstrators since a disputed presidential election in 2009.
Tehran has criticized Gulf nations allied to Washington for cracking down on their people and has called Western military action against Libya's Muammar Gadhafi an excuse to gain neo-colonial control over the oil-rich North African country.
In the past two years, Khamenei's annual message had contained a reply to U.S. President Barack Obama's overtures to Iran through his own "Nowruz" or New Year message to the Iranian people offering to work towards less hostile relations.
After a year when Washington succeeded in tightening UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, neither side has expressed hope of rapprochement and Khamenei said Iran would make the coming year one of "economic jihad", or holy struggle, to foil its enemies' actions.
"The sanctions which the enemies of the Iranian nation have imposed have been undertaken with the intention of inflicting a blow to our country's advancement, prevent it from realizing the outcome of its steady efforts. Of course, their intention will not materialize," said Khamenei.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/obama-the-future-of-iran-belongs-to-the-young-people-1.350802
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