Talk:Killing of Neda Agha-Soltan/Reactions

Iranian government reactions

Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, suggested in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the CIA could have been involved in the killing of Agha-Soltan. He also said she was shot in the head from behind and that "the bullet that was found in her head was not a bullet that you could find in Iran", thus contradicting first-hand witness Hejazi (the doctor seen in the video placing his hands on her chest to staunch her bleeding, as described under Circumstances of death) who stated she was unequivocally shot in the chest from the front, as there was no exit wound in the back.

“ My question is that how is that this Nada was shot from behind and several cameras take that. And this is done in an area where there was no important demonstration. If the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the elements of the government, and then choosing a girl would be something good for them because it would have much higher impact. ”

During his Friday sermon on June 26, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei alleged that Agha-Soltan was killed by her fellow protesters in order to "raise propaganda against the system".

Responding to Mir Hossein Mousavi's appeal, Iranian government legally approved a Sunday June 28 2009, (or Tir 7th 1388 Anno Persico) peaceful prayer gathering at 6pm mourning those, including Neda Agha-Soltan, killed during the 2009 post-election clashes at the Qoba Mosque (or Ghoba Mosque) in Tehran. Diplomats from other countries may attend. The announcement is cited from Mousavi's Facebook page. Sunday June 28 is also the one-week anniversary of Neda's martyrdom.

U.S. reactions

• On June 22, 2009, United States Senator John McCain announced to the United States Senate that Agha-Soltan "had already become a kind of Joan of Arc" and "Today, I and all America pays tribute to a brave young woman who was trying to exercise her fundamental human rights and was killed in the streets of Tehran."

• On June 23, 2009, United States President Barack Obama paid tribute to Agha-Soltan, saying that "[we] have seen courageous women stand up to brutality and threats, and we have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets." Obama has been criticized by members of the Republican Party as well as conservative political commentators, who have said that his support for the Iranian protesters is too timid. On June 23, 2009, the Washington Post reported that 52% of those US citizens polled on June 21 approved of Obama's reaction toward the Iran protests. Obama later said that he had watched the video of her killing, describing it as "heartbreaking", while adding "I think that anybody who sees it knows there’s something fundamentally unjust about that."