Iran Assembly Re-Elects Conservative as Speaker, Reuter, June 1

TEHRAN - The conservative Shi'ite Moslem clergyman defeated in Iran's presidential election was chosen again on Sunday as speaker of parliament, signaling president-elect Mohammad Khatami could face a tough time ahead.

Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the conservative clerical establishment's candidate for the presidency, was re-elected to his third one-year term as speaker of the 270-seat Majlis. Nateq-Nouri, the only candidate for speaker, was re-elected by 211 deputies compared with 146 last year.

A threatened challenge by the dominant conservatives' centrist opponents, who had spoken of nominating former interior minister Abdullah Nouri, failed to appear.

Iranian analysts said Nateq-Nouri's re-election as speaker could be a problem for Khatami,

[In a statement, the NCR President Massoud Rajavi, said: Reinstating the Majlis's leadership clearly shows that despite propaganda by some western circles, internal suppression and export of terrorism will remain as the clerical regime's main pillars. Khatami neither wants nor can he institute the slightest reform within the ruling theocracy.

The NCR President added: Any hope toward "an opening" and any kind of "democratic process" under the Velayat-e Faqih theocracy is but a mirage… Nateq-Nouri's reelection and Khamenei's efforts to exert control over the Majlis, will subsequently aggravate feuding and hostility within the regime's different factions and organs.]

EU Quietly Approaches Iran, Reuter, June 1

TEHRAN - The European Union has quietly approached Iran to see whether a way can be found to thaw relations which are frosty over allegations of high Iranian involvement in political killings abroad, Western diplomats said on Sunday.

A senior Dutch foreign ministry official met Iranian officials in Tehran on Saturday and will report back to European foreign ministers at a meeting of the EU's Council of General Affairs in Luxembourg on Monday, the diplomats said.

[The NCR in a statement said: The Iranian Resistance warns that such diplomatic ties, barely a month after the Luxembourg meeting, send a dangerous signal to the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship and embolden it to continue the suppression at home and export of terrorism abroad.]

Overview

TEHRAN - Iran's president-elect Mohammad Khatami was warned by Islamic hard-liners on Friday not to stray from the principles of the Islamic revolution by pushing forward too many moderate policies.

Influential hard-line cleric Ahmad Janati urged Khatami to heed "first God, second the leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and then the demands of voters."

"The voters have different demands which should be realized within Islamic and revolutionary limitations," he said in a sermon before the weekly Friday Moslem prayers at Tehran University.

Janati, who is the secretary of the powerful Council of Guardians, a conservative-dominated legislative body which ensures laws conform to the constitution and Islamic teachings, said the vote was an affirmation of the 1979 Islamic revolution and the Islamic establishment…

Since his election, Khatami himself has been careful not to alienate the conservative clergy, stressing his intentions to stick to the fundamental revolutionary principles, although promising more political diversity and freedom within the bounds of the constitution.

Hard-line newspapers have also warned against any "unrealistic" expectation from Khatami. "The new president's motto is adherence to the revolution and the Islamic republic," said Kayhan daily.

"The ill-wishers now see that their dreams were nothing but an illusion," it warned. "The enemy is trying to provide an inverse picture of the events in Iran."

The conservative Resalat warned Khatami's supporters against too much gloating in their victory or boasting as it "could lead to a spirit of revenge and excuses to hurt" the newly-elected candidate.

For example, MPs in the conservative-dominated parliament "could throw hurdles in his way in having his cabinet approved," it said.

[In regards to this event, the NCR said in a statement: Jannati implicitly admitted that Nateq-Nouri’s defeat had caused defections among the ruling faction’s supporters and demoralized a significant part of them.

In a statement after the election sham, the NCR President Massoud Rajavi had stressed: The defeat of Khamenei's faction... and the change in the balance of power against him will foment more crisis within the regime, accelerate its disintegration, aggravate its internal feuding and add momentum to the advancement of the Resistance.]

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