TEHRAN: The power struggle in Iran between reformists and hardliners has reached a delicate phase, with reformists now raising ultimatums against the uncompromising policies of the clergy establishment.

“The crisis is getting worse day by day and people are losing trust in the post revolutionary regime. Eventually there will either be reforms or chaos, that would be up to the totalitarians to decide”, warned Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of the leading reformist party Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF).

Iran has gone through a turbulent week with two mass and violent demonstrations by students and workers. A senior ayatollah resigned in protest against political mafia gangs, and a reformist scholar who went as far as querying Islamic principles was branded as blasphemous.

“The people will eventually overrun those in favour of reforms,” said Khatami, referring to people’s frustration over the low pace of reforms. This was also in reference to reformists failure to confront hardliners although they have a majority in both the executive and legislative.

After the election of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997 and his re-election in 2001, it was hoped that the democratization process would steer the country away from fundamentalism and international isolation.

Five years later however, hardliners still dominate the political scene. Key state bodies such as the judiciary and the senate-like Guardian Council enable them to block the reform course.

They do so by closing down newspapers and removing liberal journalists. Political activists have been branded as secularists.

“There must be an end to dogmatism and eradication otherwise we quit”, said Khatami, the younger brother of President Mohammad Khatami.

Abbas Abdi, a senior member of the IIPF party, has even called for Khatami’s resignation to set a clear political course. His request was rejected by the president.

The establishment considers the 1979 referendum legitimate for continuing its religious-oriented policies.

Then, more than 90 per cent of the people voted in favour of an Islamic Republic system with an approved constitution. Reformists, however, say that more than 75 per cent of the population was not eligible to vote that the results should not be considered irrevocable by the clergy.

Today’s young generation cannot be obliged to follow the political decisions made by their parents, said Saaid Hajarian, a reformist who was paralyzed after an assassination attempt against him by harliners two years ago.

Hajarian’s case is symbolic for the protests of reformists in Iran. His assassins were released from jail after serving only two years of their 15-year jail term. But former interior minister Abdullah Nuri is serving the fourth year of a five-year term.

The IIPF general secretary voiced his concern and said terrorists are acquitted, former ministers remain in jail and the public asks what will happen to ordinary people.

Reformists are anxious about international isolation. The ongoing hostility against the United States could make Iran the next target of the American ‘war against terrorism’ after Iraq.

No country would jeopardize its national interests by opposing the US and siding with Iran, according to Ebrahim Yazdi, the head of the Liberal Party Freedom Movement.

Khatami considered the prospect of another war in Iran as devastating for diplomacy and national interests.

“If we do not follow a wise and efficient diplomacy, we will again become a politically isolated island in the world community,” the IIPF head said.—dpa