Back to Brief on Iran
TEHRAN - Iran marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Ruhollah Khomeini on Friday with rival factions claiming his political legacy.
The conservatives have used the occasion to stir up traditional revolutionary feeling against democratic challenges to clerical rule by some of President Mohammad Khatami's supporters.
"With a psychological war, the enemy seeks to create chaos and domestic infighting. But the Islamic revolution will move along the path of Imam (Khomeini) without a halt," said Habibollah Asgaroladi, leader of a conservative political organization.
Disagreements aside, Khomeini's memory still weights heavily on political life in Iran, where he remains an object of universal respect and affection among government officials.
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the former Tehran mayor imprisoned on graft charges, wrote a letter from jail to express his grief on the anniversary of Khomeini's death.
"I am sorry I cannot attend the ceremonies. Now, more than ever, I feel the pain of losing our dear imam. As in previous years, I feel lonely as an orphan because of his loss," he said.
Political and religious leaders and military officials have been flocking to Khomeini's mausoleum in south Tehran to renew their allegiance to the austere cleric.
This week the mausoleum will also host
the regular Friday prayers that are normally held at Tehran University.
Khomeini's successor as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
is due to lead the prayers.
Iran Currency Slide Accelerates, Reuters, May 30
TEHRAN - The downward slide in the Iranian rial gathered pace this weekend, and on Sunday it had lost 3.5 percent against the dollar compared with late last week, traders said.
On Tehran's illegal but active black market, the dollar was trading at 8,700 rials, compared with about 8,400.
Analysts attributed the fall to a recent
decision by the central bank to allow the country's stock market to set
official foreign exchange rates, mainly for imports. The move was to speed
up the process of securing hard currency from the central bank to pay for
purchase of goods.
Two Years Later, Khatami Unable to Improve the "Ill" Economy, And ... , Reuter, June 2
TEHRAN - Khatami called on Wednesday for national resolve to tackle his country's "ill" economy, as officials appeared confused and divided over policy direction.
"We have to accept the fact that our economy is ill," Khatami said in a speech before inaugurating an exports promotion center.
"Our economy needs a serious and fundamental restructuring. We need national resolve to boost exports," he declared.
His blunt statements about the economy were similar to those of last August, when he presented the broad outlines of his economic recovery program.
Khatami, at the time, pledged to accelerate privatization, provide new guarantees for domestic and foreign investors and reduce government red tape.
Nearly a year later little has emerged to raise hope of improvement, with the economy mired in recession and hit by the weak price of oil. Unemployment and inflation are still persistently high.
The decline in hard currency revenues has forced the government to suspend many development projects and curb imports. Many factories operate at a fraction of capacity.
Industry Minister Gholamreza Shafei has told industrialists they should expect no help from the government and that they better seek foreign partners through buy-back deals.
The national currency, the rial, continues to drop in value against major foreign currencies, falling four percent in the last week alone.
Non-oil exports continue to hover around
$3 billion annually, nearly half of the $6 billion figure forecast at the
beginning of the second five-year development plan in 1996.
...Ineffective Against Rival Faction, Reuter, June 3
TEHRAN - A senior Iranian culture ministry official has appealed for an end to harassment of the press by the conservative-led judiciary after a spate of arrests of newspaper directors, newspapers reported on Thursday.
Seven newspaper and news agency managers allied with Khatami have been summoned to court in the past week, putting pressure on the government to intervene.