An extremely interesting article on Iran in this morning's New York Times. Looks as if Khatami is moving things in the direction of a serious confrontation.
Iran's President Trying to Limit Power of Clergy
By NAZILA FATHI
nytimes.com
TEHRAN, Aug. 28 — Iran's president, Mohammad Khatami, said today that hard-line clerics had made it all but impossible for him to do his job and that he would propose legislation to adjust the balance of power so that he could pursue reforms.
President Khatami's statement amounted to a clear expression of frustration with the clerics who hold most real levers of power and have thwarted a president elected twice on promises to open the economy and usher in greater civil liberties.
"I am announcing today that the president must have the power to perform his duties within the framework of the Constitution," he said at a news conference.
"We cannot speak of democracy if we are not ready to play by its rules," he added. "The main aspect of democracy is the right of people to change a government if they do not like it."
The president acknowledged that dialogue with the hard-liners had proved fruitless so far, and his challenge today suggested a new willingness to confront them more forcefully. It seems certain to intensify a long power struggle in the country.
Mr. Khatami said he would seek to bolster his powers through Parliament, where his supporters hold a majority and his proposals seem certain to pass.
But any such changes can be blocked by a religious panel called the Guardian Council, which has turned back reforms before, though never proposals so sweeping.
Among his statements today that are sure to infuriate opponents, Mr. Khatami said he was open to ties with the United States. "We haven't said there will never be a change in policy toward America," he said.
But he said that "America's policies have created concern in the world" and that relations could change only if America treated Iran with the same respect that European nations did.
"We cannot engage in a dialogue in which the other side constantly uses an intimidating tone against us," Mr. Khatami said. "We are willing to have dialogue when we become confident that this situation has changed."
The United States severed ties with Iran in 1980 after the Islamic revolution in early 1979 and the subsequent seizure of the American Embassy here by students who took 52 Americans hostage.
President Bush has labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" along with North Korea and Iraq, against which the administration is openly considering war. "I hope the U.S. makes no mischief against Iran," Mr. Khatami said.
Mr. Khatami's election in 1997 and re-election last year seemed to offer opportunity for a thaw with the United States. But his achievements have been limited as hard-liners have retained control of the judiciary, security forces, army, large economic centers and the government-run television.
One of the most substantial obstacles to change is the religious panel called the Guardian Council. Members of the panel are appointed by the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and are authorized to reject any legislation they consider counter to the Constitution or Islamic law.
Among its powers, the watchdog body is authorized to interpret the Constitution itself and has the right to disqualify candidates for elections.
Mr. Khatami said his government had already presented Parliament with a bill to limit the powers of the council, which has used its authority to prevent many politicians supporting reform from running for office.
The next election for Parliament is scheduled to take place within 18 months, and analysts say that without limiting the powers of the council, many reform candidates may be thwarted again.
In addition, Mr. Khatami said he would soon send Parliament a bill to restore presidential powers from the time when Ayatollah Khamenei held the office in the 1980's.
Those powers would allow the president to act as head of state, enforce the Constitution and protect citizen's rights.
Mr. Khatami noted that he had been the first president deprived of those powers.
In recent months some of the most serious political struggles have come between the president and the judiciary, which the hard-liners control and which has been backed by the Guardian Council.
The head of the judiciary, appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei, has shut down nearly 60 publications and jailed scores of reform activists and political opponents, including 33 members of a religious nationalist party who were sentenced to prison and lashes last month.
Mr. Khatami has tried to use the presidency to supervise the judiciary, which has conducted closed trials of political dissenters.
Today, Mr. Khatami said the Guardian Council had vetoed that attempt.
But he insisted that the judiciary's performance remained unconstitutional. The fate of newspapers should be decided by a jury, he said, and trials should take place in open courts with the presence of a jury.
"But they have never listened," he said.
Mr. Khatami warned that public disaffection was rising in Iran, where a sluggish economy has spawned an unemployment rate of 14 percent. But he acknowledged that much of this dissatisfaction stemmed from his government's failure to bring citizen's greater freedoms. His own frustration was evident.
"The Guardian Council should not reject the bills," he said, "because they are logical and none of them are against the Constitution or the Islamic law, unless it intends to violate the Constitution."
The president insisted that he wanted to avoid any social unrest. But he also acknowledged that the faith and patience he had placed in dialogue with his opponents had worn thin.
"Unfortunately I have had no success," he said. "My warnings have been ignored, and the president's duties, which are clearly stated in the Constitution, have been suspended."
Chief among those duties, he said, was to enforce the Constitution, and he insisted that at a minimum he should have the power to do so.
"A president who cannot perform that role is no good," he warned, "and we will seek other alternatives if this fails." |
