R MOHAMMAD KHATAMI, Iran’s former moderate president, yesterday announced he would stand in the June presidential election as the country’s beleaguered reformists attempt to deprive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of a second term.
Speaking after a meeting of his political group, Mr Khatami, a 65-year-old reformist cleric whose two-term presidency from 1997 to 2005 had helped to rehabilitate Iran in the international community, said he felt it was his right and his “responsibility” to participate in the election.
“We all feel committed to the country’s fate,” he said, adding that he was hoping to “enhance” Iran’s position in the world.
Mr Khatami had been under pressure from reformists to seek another presidential term, with many of them arguing that he was the only politician with sufficient support to beat the populist Mr Ahmadinejad whose radicalism has alarmed world powers and deepened Iran’s international isolation.
Although foreign policy in Iran is in the hands of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a reformist president can have an impact in moderating the attitude of a regime dominated by radical conservatives.
Mr Khatami has been an outspoken critic of the Ahmadinejad government’s management of the country’s oil wealth and its confrontational foreign policy.
Reformists argue that talks with the US would have a better chance of succeeding if the more temperate Mr Khatami, a proponent of dialogue between Islam and the West, were to reach the presidency again.
US president Barack Obama is looking to engage with Iran to persuade it to curb its nuclear programme, which western governments fear is a cover for future production of nuclear weapons.
Some analysts yesterday warned that Mr Khatami could still step back from his decision, if Mir-Hossein Moussavi, a well-respected former prime minister, announced his willingness to run in the months to come.
Mr Khatami has been urging Mr Moussavi to run in his place but the latter has been hesitant. Any reformist candidate, however, faces an uphill battle.
Many analysts and diplomats assume Mr Ahmadinejad will be re-elected because he has the support of Iran’s supreme leader.
But reformist politicians, who respect the Islamic republic’s ruling system but want to make it more democratic and accountable, say the regime might want a free election to send a positive signal to the US. “We should insist on having a free and legitimate election, and on securing a high turnout,” Mr Khatami said yesterday.
Mr Khatami is hoping to capitalise on the economic discontent in Iran, partly born of Mr Ahmadinejad’s unorthodox economic policies. The president’s effort to distribute wealth to poorer segments of the population has alleviated economic suffering in parts of rural Iran but fuelled inflation and sucked credit from the banking system.
Mr Khatami was reluctant to take part in the election and his experience during his two terms was bitter. His reforms were stymied by hardliners in the regime.
And, as reformists later acknowledged, they had made mistakes, by putting huge emphasis on freedom and human rights when people’s more immediate concern was economic hardship.
Aides to Mr Khatami say that if he wins the election he will focus on the economy and foreign relations, in the hope of building a stronger foundation for a more democratic Iran. – ( Financial Times service)