State Dep’t: Iranian diplomats still welcome to celebrate July 4th with U.S.; Update: Video added

posted at 6:06 pm on June 22, 2009 by Allahpundit
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Via Weasel Zippers, a gesture of solidarity per our two nations’ shared interest in life, liberty, and shooting women in the heart on the street, I guess.

Not even a disinvitation to the barbecue on America’s birthday as punishment for killing protesters, huh, Barry? Absolutely the lowest moment of his presidency thus far.

President Barack Obama’s administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

“There’s no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

“We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran,” Kelly said. “We tried many years of isolation, and we’re pursuing a different path now.”

Below you’ll find a new clip of The One’s hot-dog buddies in action. No idea when or where it was taken, but it doesn’t matter. The official death toll over the weekend was 17; assuming this was recorded on Saturday and considering that we’ve got yet another corpse caught on film here, how likely does that number seem to you? Strong content warning, needless to say.

A HuffPo blogger astutely describes the regime’s strategy now as “Tiananmen in slow motion,” aimed at strangling the protests with periodic scattered violence to avoid the media clusterfark of a grand massacre. Mousavi’s countermove is keeping people out of the streets with tomorrow’s planned national strike, which an ABC analyst in Tehran says will be big shakes if it comes off. Assuming it does — and the same analyst says activity is already sparse at Tehran’s bazaars — the next eruption could/should come on Wednesday, when the Guardian Council announces the results of its sham probe into the sham election results. Contain your surprise at learning that preliminary findings have indicated no fraud.

Something to ponder while you watch. If the revolution stalls now and heats up again, say, in two years, how will a nuclear-armed Khamenei respond to the prospect of being toppled from power? That is to say, even if you believe the mullahs can be trusted to act rationally under normal circumstances, can they also be trusted to act rationally under abnormal circumstances? Exit quotation: “[T]he Iranians are missing two words from Obama: ‘I condemn.’”

Update: RCP has video of the State Department presser. Biiiiig smile.

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