TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will have to deal with hardline opponents at home to have any chance of carrying out his vision of a "fresh" Iranian foreign policy, analysts said on Saturday...

Entrenched conservatives have been increasingly vocal against any perceived softening in Iran's stance to the West, particularly to Washington -- the arch-enemy which it accuses of trying to destroy the Islamic government.

"A nightmare awaits those foreign countries that assume the victory of President Khatami was a curtain-raising ceremony for resuming ties with Iran in order to dominate and usurp its wealth as they did under the Shah's rule," was the stark message in the editorial of the Iran News daily.

The appointment of former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati as Khamenei's international affairs adviser has also been interpreted as ruling out any fundamental or immediate change in Iran's foreign policy.

Velayati's appointment "will guarantee the continuance of Iran's basic policy -- a rejection of foreign domination and establishment of ties with other countries based on mutual interest and respect," Iran News said.

The new role for Velayati, a pediatrician, came just a day after Khatami got his own foreign minister -- Iran's former ambassador to the United Nations, Kamal Kharrazi, through a vote of confidence in parliament...

Minefield of Relations with Iran, Reuter, August 24

WASHINGTON - With one eye on the emerging oil boom in Central Asia, the United States is dropping fresh hints of an interest in improving ties with Iran.

Previous approaches since relations were severed in 1980 during the long crisis over the seizure of U.S. diplomatic hostages in Tehran have been rejected by an Iranian leadership that still sees Washington as "the great Satan..."

Iran's exiled opposition and many Western scholars argue, however, that the new "moderate" image is a sham and that neither Khatami nor any government he appoints have any power to change Iran's foreign policy.

This, they say, is controlled by Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and by anti-Western extremists loyal to him.

U.S. analysts say the administration has to tread with extreme caution in the minefield of relations with Iran.

Commentary

The regime’s new president, Mullah Mohammad Khatami, named as his deputies another six veteran officials who have played very significant roles in the past 18 years in repression and export of terrorism.

Massoumeh Ebtekar, named as Khatami's deputy and head of the organization for environmental protection, was one of the three main students involved in the occupation of the American Embassy in Tehran and the hostage taking of U.S. diplomats in 1979.

Mullah Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari served in Khomeini's office for years and was a member of the Association of Combatant Clerics (formerly known as the Line of the Imam [Khomeini]). This faction holds the most totalitarian views on domestic policy, export of terrorism, and state-controlled economy and has demonstrated hysteric enmity to western countries.

Mohammad Hashemi, Rafsanjani's brother, was one of the founders of the regime's Intelligence Ministry. He headed the state-run radio and television and has been one of the top officials in charge of censorship. Along with Attaollah Mohajerani, Khatami's Minister of Guidance, he was a member of the committee set up in Tehran in 1993 to plot the assassination of Arafat.

The regime's official cabinet therefore has to practically compete with three other cabinets taking shape around Khamenei, Rafsanjani and Khatami, himself. The presence of such parallel centers of power in the mullahs' regime will seriously and rapidly weaken the system in its entirety.

At the same time, Khatami's ministers of Interior, Defense and Intelligence in interviews yesterday with the state television expressed their alarm at the outburst of public protests by stressing the need to strengthen national security.

Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi, Minister of Intelligence, pointed out the need to expand the regime's information gathering crew to a "60-million strong Intelligence network." Abdollah Noori, Minister of Interior, set security affairs prior to his ministry's urban construction duties. Referring to the Resistance, Ali Shamkhani, Minister of Defense, also stressed on his duty to create security in the borders "to counter the enemies."

With Khatami's cabinet beginning its work, power struggle has intensified among the various factions of the mullahs, reports say. In addition to his own instruments of exerting influence as Vali-e Faqih, Khamenei is forming "parallel cabinets" to increase his meddling in government affairs. Velayati's appointment as advisor in international affairs is part of this policy.

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