Obama to Iran's leaders: Stop 'unjust' actions

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Saturday challenged Iran's government to halt a "violent and unjust" crackdown on dissenters, using his bluntest language yet to condemn Tehran's postelection response.

Obama has sought a measured reaction to avoid being drawn in as a meddler in Iranian affairs. His comments have grown more pointed as the clashes intensified, and his latest remarks took direct aim at Iranian leaders.

"We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people," Obama said in a written statement. "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."

Obama met with advisers at the White House as developments in Iran grew more ominous.

"Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away," the president said, recalling a theme from the speech he gave in Cairo, Egypt, this month.

"The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government," Obama said. "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."

Obama also cited Martin Luther King's statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

"I believe that," the president said. "The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."