US showed support for protesters in Iran

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington was trying ‘behind the scenes’ to empower protesters disputing Iran’s presidential election.

In an interview with CNN aired on Sunday, Clinton said the US did not openly support the demonstrators since it did not want to act in a way that would allow the Iranian leadership to use the US support to unify the Iranian nation against the protesters.

“Now, behind the scenes, we were doing a lot,” Clinton said. “We were doing a lot to really empower the protesters without getting in the way.”

“We knew that if we stepped in too soon, too hard … the leadership would try to use us to unify the country against the protesters.”

The former first lady added that the US would not stop supporting those contesting the election results.

Iran became the scene of rallies after the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for another four-year term.

Protests were held mainly in the capital, Tehran, with some of them turning violent and resulting in the deaths of at least 30 people.

Iran accuses Western countries in particular the US and Britain for instigating the post-election protests in the country, calling on them to adopt a policy of non-interference toward the country.