Today, in his first and most important choice, Mohammad Khatami, the mullahs' new president, appointed Hassan Habibi as his first deputy. Habibi served eight years in the same post under Rafsanjani.

NCR in a statement released today said: "As one of the leaders of Khomeini's anti-human regime, Habibi has been significantly involved in all of the regime's crimes in the past 18 years. Before being appointed as Rafsanjani's deputy in 1989, Habibi was the Minister of Justice. Tens of thousands of political prisoners were executed during his tenure. He was among the officials in charge of the massacre of 15,000 political prisoners in summer 1988."

"Habibi was also the spokesman for Khomeini's Revolutionary Council in 1979 and his representative in the Council of Cultural Revolution which unleashed a brutal campaign to crack down on students in the 1980s," the statement added.

"His appointment as first deputy, therefore, is a clear indication that hope for any reform in the mullahs' regime is but a mirage. Khatami is neither interested nor capable of bringing about any change."

Khatami and Conservatives, Reuter, August 4 

TEHRAN - New President Mohammad Khatami, sworn in on Monday, could enjoy a "honeymoon" with Iran's Western critics, but on the home front analysts predicted a tough struggle to get his cabinet list approved by the conservative parliament.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday his confirmation of Khatami as well as the vote of the people remained "valid" as long as long he followed the divine teachings of Islam.

Parliament speaker, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, and the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, both indirectly hinted in speeches at the swearing-in ceremony that Khatami should consult parliament ahead of presenting a cabinet list.

"Khatami Is One of Them", Reuter, August 2 

TEHRAN - In random street interviews young Iranian men and women said on Saturday they expected Khatami to tackle high inflation, unemployment and Tehran's tense ties with the West and its Gulf Arab neighbors….

But a Shi'ite Moslem clergyman who teaches criminal law at Tehran University predicted no great social changes under Khatami.

"What freedoms and changes?" he asked. "Freedom is already here. Maybe Khatami will not succeed in making these so-called social changes because the majority of the people of Iran want conservative Islam." Some analysts agree.

"Khatami is one of them (clergymen) and they share many common ideas and issues which no one can divert from," said one analyst who asked not to be named.

The English-language daily Iran News said this week in an editorial which mainly focused on foreign policy "We have no doubt that Khatami, a follower of the late Imam (Khomeini), would not even entertain the idea of dismantling the pillars" on which Iran was built….

Change of Iran Policy? Associated Press, August 2 

WASHINGTON - For almost two decades, Iran has been a nightmare come true for the United States, a one-time ally in the grip of a radical regime.

Its anti-American vitriol is unmatched, it sponsors terrorism and apparently is intent on becoming a nuclear power….

Khatami's inauguration coincides with campaign by some U.S. Iran watchers, led by former high-level government officials, for a shift in U.S. policy from one of isolating Iran to engaging it.

From the other side come equally insistent voices that Iran will change little under Khatami because he is the captive of radical clerics. These analysts also believe U.S. policy is successful and should not be changed.

… That approach is challenged by Zalmay Khalizad of the Rand Corp. think tank, who says U.S. policy has precluded Iranian hegemony in the Persian Gulf and ensures the free flow of oil in the region. He says it also has deterred, or at least delayed, Iran's acquisition of sophisticated weaponry.

The U.S. containment policy, Khalizad adds, "is more successful than most observers give it credit for."…

American University's Amos Perlmutter says the Khatami's accession changes nothing. "There are no moderates in Iran any more than there were moderates in the Soviet Union before Mikhail Gorbachev," he says.

Power, he adds, still lies with the "totalitarian, ideological clergy, whose hatred for the West, and especially the United States, surpasses all otherwise rational behavior."…

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