SECRETARY OF State Hillary Clinton was uttering an obvious truth Monday when she told students in Qatar that “Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship.’’ With her hard-edged characterization of a regime that has lost credibility both domestically and across the Muslim world, Clinton properly cast the Iranian people as victims of military repression. This is an instance when words can have the weight of actions.

This gesture of solidarity with the Iranian people also provides a necessary justification for the Obama administration’s adoption of a two-track Iran policy. Unless Iran curbs its nuclear ambitions, President Obama will soon be in the position of enforcing sanctions that target Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, which is accumulating wide influence over everyday life in the country, while still extending an offer of diplomatic engagement with Iran’s government.

Clinton’s tough talk about military dictatorship was a deft way of indicating that the United States understands what Iranians have been revolting against and has no wish to impose sanctions that could make them suffer more than they already are suffering. Her tacit message was that Washington will therefore seek new international sanctions that target Revolutionary Guard bosses who have turned a large part of the Iranian economy into a Mafia fiefdom.

What Clinton said in Qatar about the Guard’s creeping coup in Iran will hardly reverse that power grab. And it is sure to be met with skepticism by the various Arab monarchies and autocracies allied with Washington. But it had the great virtue of aligning America with the people of Iran – the most pro-American population in the Muslim world.