Back to Brief on Iran
... Since the surprise 1997 election of Mohammed Khatami, who in Iranian terms is a moderate, a fierce internal battle has begun, with the stakes being the future of the mullah-led theocracy...
But the old-line mullahs, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, are determined to blunt the new President's reformist efforts. Conservative-controlled state radio immediately dismissed Albright's olive branch as nothing new...
... They calculate that no matter what Khatami does, with the price of oil dropping, Iran's petroleum-based economy is unlikely to rebound quickly from a sluggish 0.5% growth rate and a 9% unemployment rate. And thus far, Khatami and his advisers have evinced no ability to reform the corrupt and patronage-heavy economic machinery of the country. "Being the incumbent can be a liability," smiles conservative member of Parliament Mohammed Javad Larijani. "We don't plan on giving anybody a free ride."...
Those around the President fear that someday the hard-liners may resort
to extremes... Already conservatives have sent bearded thugs from Ansar
Hizballahi, a militant fundamentalist group, to break up student demonstrations
authorized by Khatami's Interior Ministry.
Ex-Minister Says Iran's Battle Lines Clear To All, Reuter, June 30
TEHRAN - Iran's former interior minister, a key aide to President Mohammad Khatami, said on Tuesday his ouster by conservatives had defined the battle lines in the country's political struggle.
Abdollah Nouri told a cheering throng of pro-Khatami students at Tehran University that the conservatives who dominate the parliament had dropped their pretence and declared their outright opposition to the president and his policy of reform.
"I am very hopeful that after the vote of no-confidence, everything has become clear on what the position is of the majority of deputies against the government and (President) Khatami," said Nouri, who was forced to resign last week.
"It was a gift from God that people can now understand everything clearly."
As his minister for the interior, Nouri authorized several demonstrations by critical student factions, a move that unnerved the conservative majority in the parliament.
Clashes ensued last month when hardliners tried to break up one of the
rallies in Tehran, called to demand an end to the vetting of electoral
candidates by senior clerics of the authoritative Guardian Council.
Iranian Dies of Heart Attack as Death Sentence Read Out, Agence France Presse, June 28
TEHRAN - An Iranian man suffered a fatal heart attack as his death sentence for adultery was being read out in court, the newspaper Ressalat reported Sunday.
Eskandar Nazi, 38, was being sentenced to hang on Saturday by a court
in Behbahan, in the southern province of Fars, when he had a heart attack,
the daily said.
Bahrain Brands Mullahs' Iran A "Threat", Agence France Presse, June 30
TEHRAN - Iran expressed its displeasure on Tuesday at remarks by Bahraini Defense Minister Khalifa ibn Ahmed al-Khalifa that Iran remained a threat to his country.
Bahrain has accused Iran of being behind sporadic anti-government violence
that has rocked this small island state since 1994.
Concerns About Technology Leaks to Iran, Reuter, June 29
ALMATY - Israel said on Monday that Moscow should do more to stop transfers of Russian missile technology to Iran, declaring that radical Islam armed with nuclear weapons was the greatest threat to the "free world."
"The issue of leakage of Russian missile technologies to Iran concerns not only us but the United States and Russia itself," Israeli Industry and Trade Minister Natan Sharansky told reporters in Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty.
"I think now it is self-evident to everyone that the main enemy of the free world after the fall of communism is namely Islamist fundamentalism, which supports terrorism, disrupts the normal rhythm of international life and is longing to possess weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"It (fundamentalism) is the common enemy for different types of countries -- of Western democracy, for newly democratic states and even for many Moslem states," he said.