The Iranian question - The G8 leaders have been too slow to respond to the crackdown by Tehran

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the attack by hardline vigilantes on a university hall of residence in Tehran that led to at least one death and signalled an all-out attack on students demonstrating for greater freedom and democracy in Iran. A decade later, after hundreds more deaths, police and Basij militias are ready to use deadly force again, should those protesting at the fraudulent re-election of President Ahmadinejad dare to take to the streets to mark the anniversary. Any demonstrators ready to risk their lives for democracy will receive only the flimsiest verbal support from the outside world. The G8 leaders, meeting in Italy, have pussyfooted around the issue, slow to call for new sanctions, uncertain how to deal with Tehran’s nuclear programme and loath to sacrifice their own interests to give support to the opposition. A G8 statement last night saying it “deplores” post-election violence changed nothing. Britain, selected by the regime as the scapegoat for the protests and bloodshed that followed the presidential election, has called for solidarity from its European partners over the arrest of nine Iranian employees of the British Embassy in Tehran. One is still being held on the ludicrous charge of inciting the riots. But the EU has shown little readiness to act in concert, to withdraw envoys from Tehran or threaten Iranian diplomatic interests across the Union. Continue ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6670016.ece