US Recognizes Maldives Government That Ousted Democratically Elected Nasheed

US Recognizes Maldives Government That Ousted Democratically Elected Nasheed | Common Dreams
that was fast - hard to be shocked any more... but the US has a base in the area, and who cares about democracy and climate change advocates? Military coups are just fine, tho...
The US government has recognized the new standing government in the Maldives just days after the nation's democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was ousted in a military coup.

The United States on Thursday recognized the new government of Maldives President Mohamed Waheed as legitimate and urged him to fulfill a pledge to form a national unity government.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also said Robert Blake, the top US diplomat for south Asia, telephoned former president Mohamed Nasheed to tell him Washington backed a "peaceful resolution" of the crisis on the archipelago.
"We do," Nuland told reporters when asked if Washington recognizes the new government as the legitimate government of the Maldives. She called Waheed the president and Nasheed the former president.
Blake, the assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs, will travel Saturday to the Maldives to meet with both Waheed and Nasheed, who charges he was ousted in a coup, as well as civil society.

Nasheed, according to reports, has been threatened with arrest and 'life in jail' just days after he was forced to resign at gunpoint by renegade police and military forces. The Indian Ocean island has been in tumult since Nasheed's ouster and clashes continue in and around the major cities of Male and Addu.