Obama is right to stay out of Iran What is being played out on Iran's streets is an internal power struggle – and the US must avoid getting involved Comments (54)    Eric Hooglund guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 June 2009 21.00 BST Article history An Iranian woman shows ink on her finger after voting in Tehran last week. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty  The several days of mass, peaceful protests in Iran's cities, towns and even villages, by millions of Iranians who believe their votes were not counted fairly in last weekend's presidential election, have prompted various politicians in Washington to ponder whether the US should provide verbal or other support for those protestors – and even condemn the incidents of violence that have left at least seven dead in Tehran and one in the southwestern city of Shiraz.An article in yesterday's New York Times raises serious questions as to the appropriate US response to the political developments in Iran since the (disputed) results were announced. President Obama, however, seems to be resisting the urging of some for his administration to criticise the Iranian government's handling of the vote, stating at a press conference that he does not wish to interfere in Iran's politics.Obama's caution is the appropriate policy course for the US. What is essential in this situation is for Washington not to interfere, or even be perceived as interfering, in Iran's political process. There are six important reasons why the Obama administration needs to follow an approach of strict neutralism vis-à-vis political events in Iran.First and foremost, what is transpiring in Iran is a domestic political dispute. And it is a truism that no country easily tolerates foreign meddling in its internal…

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  Belfast immigrants warned: 'Get out by tomorrow – or you die' David McKittrick reports on the racism that continues to scar Northern Ireland   Friday, 10 July 2009   
PA Romanians leave south Belfast in June after being forced out by racist groups
  The message in the letter to immigrant communities in Belfast could not be starker or more brutal. "Get out of our Queen's country before our bonfire night and parade day," it declared. Related articles Pair jailed for race-hate crimes Emblazoned with a skull, it descended into a mixture of the semi-literate and the directly threatening with the warning: "Other than your building will be blown up." The leaflet was delivered to centres in Belfast representing the city's Islamic, Indian and Polish communities, in advance of this weekend's high point of the loyalist marching season. It has clearly generated worries among those communities, since all three of the centres would not comment on the threat. But Patrick Yu, who heads the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, said the leaflets were designed to threaten and frighten, adding: "It really is more about trying to reignite the issue." Just last month more than one hundred Romanians were flown out of Northern Ireland following a wave of attacks on their south Belfast homes in an episode which received worldwide publicity. Although the letter is marked "Combat 18" and bears loyalist slogans, the authorities do not believe that any local or outside organisation is behind this threat or other racist attacks. The belief is that both the attacks on Romanians and the general pattern of incidents are largely the work of racist individuals, mostly teenagers, in a primitive show of xenophobia and dislike of "outsiders." But the major complication this…

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  Publisher's Note: Good comments at bottom.  From The Times of London
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