Washington ? Republicans intensified their criticism of President Barack Obama’s handling of his first major test of international leadership, saying Sunday that he has been too cautious in response to Iran’s postelection upheaval.

“The president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world, not follow it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “He’s been timid and passive more than I would like.”

But in an interview released Sunday, Obama argued: “The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. We shouldn’t be playing into that.”

The president spoke Friday during an interview with CBS News’ Harry Smith. It will be broadcast today on “The Early Show.”

He told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, in an interview published Sunday, that the United States has no way of knowing whether the disputed Iranian election 10 days ago was fair or not. Iranians should be able to peacefully protest the results in any case, Obama said.

That interview was also done last week. Obama said nothing about the crisis in public on Sunday, although a spokesman said he discussed Iran with foreign policy advisers in the Oval Office for more than 30 minutes. He later went golfing in Virginia.

Tehran’s streets fell mostly quiet for the first time since a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, but there were reports that government forces appeared to be pressing arrests of defiant protesters after the official death toll swelled to at least 17.

The White House did not book any surrogates on the Sunday talk shows to defend or explain the administration’s approach. Republicans used their broadcast appearances to call the president timid or feckless, while the Democrat who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee said the U.S. had no hand in the disputed election.

Like other Democrats who spoke Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein backed the president’s approach.

“It is very crucial as I see that we not have our fingerprints on this,” she said, “that this really be … truly inspired by the Iranian people. We don’t know where this goes.”

A day earlier, Obama invoked the American civil rights struggle to condemn violence against demonstrators, some of whom have carried signs in English asking, “Where is My Vote?”

It was his strongest statement on what has become the most significant challenge to Iran’s ruling structure since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, but it stopped short of demanding a recount or new election, as many of the demonstrators seek.

He avoided mentioning either incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or his principal challenger by name, and said nothing about his oft-repeated campaign promise of a fresh start in diplomatic talks with the main U.S. adversary in the Middle East.

Obama’s defenders say his measured response speaks up for human rights while preserving U.S. options and lessening the chance that he becomes a scapegoat for the cleric-led government, which has blamed the West for stirring up street protests that turned into bloody clashes with police and militia.

Obama has tried to hold a middle ground as the crisis unfolds, and found the ground shifting by the day. His advisers say any thunderous denunciation of Iran’s rulers would invite them to cry interference and might worsen the violence instead of end it.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and others noted that Western leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have demanded a recount or more forcefully condemned the government crackdown.