[jammies]

It would fantastic to see Iran come out from under the fundamentalist regime and establish a secular state, however, even if the election is overturned or rerun, there is still a substantial minority who support the hardliners and are unlikely to allow significant change without violence far beyond what is happening now.

The USA would be well advised to keep out of this entirely, as Iranians who already hated and distrusted the US for keeping the Shah in power for decades were confirmed in their distrust by the invasion of Iraq. Only the most subtle and skilful diplomacy from the US might help matters, and subtle and skilful is not exactly their forte.

This is an opportunity for the EU to step up and show that they are anything other than a talking shop sitting atop a useless bureaucracy, but I doubt anything will happen other than the usual barking and growling, especially considering the reaction the French got when they suggested a harder stance on Iranian nuclear pretensions a while back, despite this going against their own national interests (for once).