TEHRAN - The brother of Khatami blasted those trying to boost political tension throughout Iran Wednesday, nine days before elections and two days after he was stoned at an electoral meeting.

An aide said a meeting at a stadium at Andimeshk in the southwest province of Khuzestan was disrupted by fundamentalist conservatives, injuring one person.

Over recent days, other Front [a pro-Khatami group] election meetings have been disrupted in the northern city of Rasht and other provincial towns, the press reported Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, a Front election meeting at Tehran's polytechnic institute was cancelled at the last moment without explanation.
 

Khatami Offers A Mere Apology for Lawlessness to Near 600 Disqualified Candidates, Associated Press, February 9

TEHRAN - Iran's president has apologized to candidates who were disqualified by a hard-line body from this month's parliamentary elections, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The affiliations of the disqualified candidates weren't immediately known but Iranian "moderates" have expressed fears that the poll supervisory body, the Guardian Council, would eliminate those who don't fully endorse the policies of the ruling clergy.

"If there are people who feel their rights have been violated in some way, I apologize to them as a humble (civil) servant," the Mosharekat daily quoted Khatami as saying during an official function on Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, the Guardian Council, charged with screening candidates for the Feb. 18 elections, said it had rejected and disqualified 576 applicants from a total of 6,856. It said 6,083 had been approved and 197 had withdrawn their nominations.
 

Khatami's Advisor: We Failed to Introduce Revolution's Values to New Generation, State-Controlled Daily Tehran Times, February 8

TEHRAN - President's Advisor in Social Affairs, Ali Rabi'ei said here Monday that the new Iranian generation has not yet become acquainted with the Islamic Revolution's values. Addressing the audience in the Election and People' Conference, Rabi'ei stressed that these values should be understood well.

Rabi'ei further added that a recent study has shown that the reference cleric groups have given their place to other groups among the new generation….
 

Head of Daily Hospitalized with "Mental Troubles", Agence France Presse, February 9

TEHRAN - The director of a daily who was due to appear in court Wednesday accused of publishing "insulting" cartoons of a leading cleric has been taken to hospital with "mental troubles," Tehran court officials said.

The court hearing was cancelled. The cartoonist, Nik Ahangh-Kosar, who was also due to appear, is already being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Fadai through his lawyer Safdarali Bazdar repeated his apologies Wednesday for publishing the cartoons.

"I had absolutely no intention of damaging the image of the clergy, since I myself come from a clerical family," he said.

The two offending cartoons appeared in Azad on January 30 and 31. One depicted leading conservative cleric Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi as a crocodile -- in a Farsi pun on his name -- weeping at being a victim of "mercenary writers."

The other depicted a fat plutocrat demanding that a poor young man, wielding only a pen, reveal where he had hidden his dollars. Mesbah-Yazdi last month alleged the US Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated Iran's government and bribed journalists.
 

Khatami's Minister Warns Dailies against "Excesses", Reuters, February 6

TEHRAN - Iran's minister of culture cautioned defiant editors on Sunday to moderate their newspapers or face pressure from the establishment.

Newspapers should be particularly wary of treading on religious sensibilities, said Mohajerani, whose portfolio includes responsibility for the press.

His warning, issued less than two weeks before parliamentary elections, follows demonstrations by clerics and seminarians in the Shi'te Moslem holy city of Qom to protest against what they say are lax cultural policies on the part of the government.

The Qom demonstrators, backed by some senior clerics, denounced "pro-reform" journalists as "mercenaries" and demanded the resignation of Mohajerani.

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