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Iran's conservatives have moved to choke off the "Khatami thaw", and supporters of Khatami fear they plan to focus attacks during the current Shi'ite Moslem mourning month when religious sentiment is high.
The conservatives' latest targets include Ataollah Mohajerani, the culture minister, as well as a theologian and several leading newspapers.
"Political deviation is more dangerous than moral deviation," a powerful conservative, Ayatollah Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, cautioned members of a hardline voluntary militia.
"There are some currents today who are out to destroy Islamic society and our ideals and values and create distance between the young generation and the symbols of the system and the revolution," he said in remarks published on Thursday.
Pro-Khatami circles have warned darkly in recent days of a conservative plot -- nicknamed "Project Moharram" -- to use the current mourning month of Moharram and its emotional peak of Ashura, on April 27, to strike at the liberals.
On Wednesday, the conservative-led parliament launched impeachment proceedings against Mohajerani, savaged by traditionalists for allegedly debasing revolutionary and Islamic values by allowing greater freedom of expression in the press and the arts.
That same day the Special Court for Clergy, also controlled by the conservatives, sentenced leading dissident theologian Mohsen Kadivar to 18 months in prison for defaming the Islamic system. Many had expected a milder sentence.
More importantly, two right-wing deputies launched unprecedented personal attacks on Khatami himself in parliament, a violation of unwritten rules that has largely kept the president out of the direct line of factional fire.
The daily Khordad, edited by a close Khatami confidant, said the latest attacks had exposed a troubling lack of unity among pro-Khatami forces.
A proposed no-confidence motion against
Mohajerani, filed on Wednesday by 31 conservative deputies, accused him
of failing to uphold Islamic and revolutionary values
Mullahs' Top Judge: Taking Care of Pets "Un-Islamic", The Associated Press, April 21
Iran's top judge is ordering police to clamp down on dog walkers, saying the practice insulted Islamic sentiment.
The hardline evening daily Kayhan quoted judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi as saying the practice was a "blind imitation of Westerners."
"This is an Islamic country. This is an Islamic city. It is okay for people to keep animals at their home, but bringing them into streets and alleys is a public insult," Yazdi said Tuesday.
"The police can take action in this
regard," he added.
Iran Says Inflation at 20% in Year to March, Reuter, April 20
TEHRAN - Inflation in Iran rose to 20 percent in the year to March, up from 17.3 percent in the previous year, Iranian state television reported on Tuesday.
It quoted a senior Central Bank official as also saying that health and food costs led the price rises, registering increases of 24.9 percent and 24.8 percent respectively in the Iranian year which ended on March 20.
Analysts say state inflation figures are based on official prices for a basket of commodities, but that many consumers have to buy some goods at higher black market prices. Economists put actual inflation at about twice the official figures.
Inflation in the year to March 1997
stood at 23.2 percent against 49.4 percent the year before.
Freedom And Mullahs, Government-Controlled Daily Resalat (Translated By Reuter), April 22
Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a top conservative cleric, blasted members of the press as influenced by Western values.
"Those who are crying out for freedom
in Iran these days are after Western-style freedom," he said.
Iran Rejected US invitation for Soccer, Washington Post, April 22
…The U.S. Soccer Federation is considering Argentina as the U.S. national team opponent for a friendly June 13 at RFK. Argentina would replace Iran, which on Monday decided not to accept a USSF invitation to play the United States in Washington. The Iranians likely will come next January, instead….