Back to Brief on Iran
UNITED NATIONS — Earlier Monday, opponents of the Iranian government gathered outside the United Nations, brandishing signs and banners with slogans like "End Religious Rule in Iran!" and "Terrorist Khatami: Out of UN."
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which organized the demonstration, said that 10,000 people took part.
Protesters denounced Khatami and Iran's spiritual leader, the ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
One banner read "Maryam Rajavi is Iran's Real President."
Portraits of Maryam Rajavi also graced large balloons that were released with loud cheers by the protesters.
Iranian Protester Interrupts Khatami's Speech At The U.N., The New York Times, September 22
UNITED NATIONS - Introducing himself as "a man of the East" from "a great and renowned nation," President Mohammad Khatami of Iran tried to woo his global audience….
As he spoke, a woman burst past guards into the General Assembly hall and screamed that Mr. Khatami was a murderer and torturer. The woman, identified by United Nations officials as Laila Jazayeri, a 37-year-old Iranian, was subdued by the United Nations security police, who handcuffed her and strapped her to a wheelchair before turning her over to the New York police.
… Demonstrators representing the United States-based National Council of Resistance of Iran protested Mr. Khatami's visit and demanded the overthrow of the Tehran Government. The protesters were joined by Senator Robert Torricelli, the New Jersey Democrat, and two Democratic Representatives, Carolyn Maloney of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey….
Khatami Plays With Words But Offers No Change in Commitment to Terrorism and Weapon Acquisition, Reuter, September 22
UNITED NATIONS - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami challenged the United States on Tuesday to match its new conciliatory tone towards his country with action to end sanctions and to change its Middle East policy.
The president, who earlier this year raised hopes of a thaw after nearly 20 years of deep U.S.-Iranian hostility since the 1979 Islamic revolution, listed a series of negative American actions which he said continued unabated.
Although they addressed the General Assembly on the same day, Khatami and Clinton did not meet. Indeed Kharrazi abruptly dropped out of a planned meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and ministers from other countries about Afghanistan, sending his deputy instead.
Iranian officials said Kharrazi was asked to accompany the president to another appointment at the last minute, but they were unable to dispel the impression that Iran got cold feet.
But his philosophical reflections on dialogue between Islamic and Western civilizations avoided any specific proposal for building political relations or concessions on other U.S. and European concerns.
He defended Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for the Hizbollah militia fighting Israeli occupation in South Lebanon and said it was Israel, not Iran, that posed a threat of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Khatami Rules Out Change on Rushdie Death Sentence, Agence France Presse, September 22
NEW YORK - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday ruled out a reversal of a 1989 religious decree sentencing British author Salman Rushdie to death.
Asked at a news conference about a possible change in the Iranian position regarding the decree, served on the ground that the book blasphemed against Islam, he replied: "we should consider the Salman Rushdie issue as completely finished."
He noted that the late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued the fatwa in February 1989, had already stated his opinion which had been repeated by other Iranian religious leaders.
Khatami said that he had "hoped and expected" that "this question would not be asked again."
European governments are also pressing Iran to abolish a 2.5 million dollar bounty on Rushdie's head.
[In a related event, Ayatollah Jalal Ganjei, a well known Iranian dissident cleric, in his today's press conference in New York, made the following comment in this regard: "On the issue of Salman Rushdie, Khatami's remark is not at all different from earlier comments by Rafsanjani and other leaders of the regime. By saying that the decree to murder Rushdie is a matter of jurisprudence, he was in fact saying very explicitly that it will not be rescinded."]