UPDATED Iran: Is the US Government Now Going to Engage with the Opposition?

UPDATE 24 December: At least in its rhetoric, the Obama Administration appears to have made  a coordinated shift to the issue of "rights" for the Iranian people. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley made his second statement in two days on the topic on Wednesday: "Iran is increasingly showing itself to be a police state", claimed Crowley, adding that the regime is using its security forces to try to "stamp out" the "aspirations of the Iranian people".

UPDATE 1920 GMT: Yesterday the US Senate passed a resolution "condemning the Government of Iran for restricting and suppressing freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly, and for its human rights abuses, and for other purposes". The resolution urges the implementation of the VOICE Act, amongst other measures, but does not appropriate funds or carry any legal authority.

Thanks to EA readers, who have brought me up-to-date on the US Government's initiatives on Iran.

The Latest from Iran (24 December): Another Day, Another Demonstration
The Latest from Iran (23 December): This Time, No Pause?

This includes the Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act, unanimously passed by the US Senate in July to provide $30 million for expanded Persian-language broadcasting into Iran and $20 million for a new “Iranian Electronic Education, Exchange, and Media Fund” to aid in getting access to information and circumventing censorship and filtering. The money was not appropriated, however, merely authorised (in other words, a statement of intention rather than confirmed action), and the measure has not been agreed yet with the US House of Representatives.

This is the context for the clearest response of the Obama Administration to the Montazeri demonstrations, issued by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley,

The fact is that there is a fissure inside Iranian society and the government is pushing by the various means that are available to it, including the use of various security forces, to kind of put this genie back in the bottle. And it is increasingly difficult for them to do that. Montazeri was a significant figure in Iranian society. He had given voice to the universal rights that we think should be available to all the people of the world, including the people of Iran.

It is incumbent upon the government of Iran to satisfy the aspirations of its people. And there is something happening inside Iranian society. It is hard to predict how it will unfold. But certainly the angst that we continue to see within Iranian society is of great concern to us. And we think that ultimately the government of Iran has to change its relationship with its own people, and that's certainly consistent with the universal principles of freedom of association, freedom of expression, open political processes, and so forth.

Fine words, but will this translate into an Administration strategy which moves away from the nuclear-first approach and towards supports of a media-led "engagement" with the Iranian people?