September 13, 2002	Friday	Rajab 5, 1423

DUBAI: Hopes for reform in the Middle East rose after Sept 11, but far from strengthening the hand of reformist Iran’s President Mohammed Khatami, the events of last year have encouraged the conservatives’ agenda.

This has triggered a political crisis in Iran, with wide social consequences.

Iran is easily the best that democracy has achieved so far in the Middle East. At the same time, it is also the best example of how the people’s mandate is being held to ransom by the religious forces, buoyed further by hawkish statements from Washington in the last year.

US President George W. Bush’s branding of Iran earlier this year as an “axis of evil”, along with Iraq and North Korea, was a setback, because the Khatami government had initiated several measures at rapprochement with Washington, the first after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“The majority of reformists believe that the US reaction against Iran helped conservatives stall the reform project by militarizing the atmosphere,” said Khaseem Abu Khaled, a Dubai- based political analyst, in an interview.

The US inclusion of Iran in the ‘axis of evil’ call may have been a fallout following the episode involving the vessel ‘Karine A’.

It was believed to have originated from an Iranian coast, laden with more than 50 tons of weapons — ostensibly for the Palestinian National Authority — and seized by Israel early this year.

The Khatami government has also come under suspicion by Washington for willingly or unwillingly providing escape routes to the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces, an allegation rejected by Tehran.

Iran’s president is elected directly by the people, though his powers are limited compared to those of the supreme leader and conservative Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is chosen by the Assembly of Experts, itself composed of elected clerics.

The conservatives, who control the judiciary and the security forces, have blocked the way for increased press freedom and human rights. In the last two years, courts have imprisoned dozens of opposition figures and journalists, shut down 22 daily papers and reinstated public executions.

The Guardians Council, which decides whether proposed laws conform with Islam, is also a conservative bastion and hinders reformist-led legislation, critics say.

Khatami’s own frustration at the actions taken against the reformists was clearly expressed in May when he threatened to resign.

“The 1979 Revolution represented our desire for an Islamic republic, not an Islamic dictatorship, and it wanted all the components of the regime to be based on the vote of the people,” he said.

“Khatami’s five years at the helm have shaken up the foundations of the Islamic regime, leaving the political and economic reforms he promised virtually a dead letter,” said Dr Nasseb Al Saleh, professor of political science at the UAE’s Ajman University.

“Khatami, a cleric, presented himself as an open and democratic religious man. He won the hearts of Iranians,” he added.

“But he is standing alone, and the real power is still in the hands of the conservatives. The US rhetoric against the Muslim world and actions in Afghanistan after Sept 11 have made it worse for him,” said Al Saleh.

The Iranian government plunged into its deepest political crisis since 1979 following the shock resignation in July of Khatami’s friend and the prayer leader in Isfahan, Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, who said he was unable to continue because of the “chaotic situation” in the country.

Taheri’s resignation came with a fiery attack on the state and the clergy. His letter cited “deception, unemployment, inflation, the diabolical gap between the rich and poor, bribery, cheating, growing drug consumption, the incompetence of authorities and the failure of the political structure” of the government as reasons for quitting.

Tehran has, indeed, changed during the last five years and signs of openness are much more common. Couples in parks hold hands, while young women stroll freely with wearing makeup and fashionable headscarves showing their hair.

But while the youth credit Khatami for the social revolution, conservatives accuse him of undermining the nation’s fundamental Muslim principles.

Recently, the hardline Revolutionary Guards Corps fired off a warning to reformers, accusing them of working to turn Iran into a secular state and of building ties with Washington.

“We have noticed a strong tendency towards secularism, which wants to separate Islam from government and weaken the guardianship of the jurist (Khamenei),” the group said.

“The truth, however,” Saleh said in an interview, “is that given the level of social unrest, the stricter the conservatives get, the more people want their freedom, and more chances of the explosion that everyone is fearing. If they don’t make room for the people, then the people will begin to decide where the limits are.”

In late August, the reformist ‘Iran News’ said in an editorial: “If the government is unable or unwilling to respond to the calls of the third generation for change such as social, political, and economic reform, there may be cataclysmic consequences for the country,” referring to those born after the revolution.

In the latest political battle, the government has thrown down the gauntlet to conservatives with a direct assault on their powers to scrutinize candidates for parliament.

The move is being seen as a rehearsal for the further constitutional reform that Khatami is seeking. The reform bill, which looks likely to be introduced in parliament in a month, would sharply increase the moderates’ powers.

The proposed law would sharply reduce the powers of the conservative-controlled Guardians Council, which pronounces on candidates’ fitness for elections, to a “supervisory role”. The body has taken out reformist candidates in municipal, parliamentary and presidential polls in previous elections.

“The president of the republic ought to be able to act with more power, and 100 per cent within the framework of the constitution,” Khatami said.

“Because of that, I will soon present to parliament a bill to be able to act with more prerogatives, in order to better respond to the aspirations of the people.”—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.