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IRANIAN CONSERVATIVES UNDECIDED ON A CANDIDATE.

The hard-line Islamic Coalition Party's secretary-general, Mohammad Nabi Habibi, said on 2 December in Tabriz that his organization will not back a candidate other than the one backed by the overall "fundamentalist trend," IRNA reported. Habibi said the most important thing in the upcoming presidential election is a high public turnout. "Opinion polls show that [Ayatollah Ali-Akbar] Hashemi-Rafsanjani is ahead of [Ali-Akbar] Velayati, [Mahmud] Ahmadinejad, and [Ali] Larijani, and he can win the presidential election if he decides to enter the election race," Hojatoleslam Ali-Akbar Fallahian-Khuzestani said during a question-and-answer session at the Al-Hadi seminary in Qom on 2 December, Fars News Agency reported. Fallahian said Tehran Mayor Ahmadinejad is a competent official who is viewed more favorably that Velayati or Larijani, but the conservatives have not decided whether to back or reject his candidacy. If Hashemi-Rafsanjani decides against being a candidate, Fallahian speculated, then the conservatives probably will back Velayati. BS

comment The problem is that IRI is running out of time. If they plan to have an election in May or June with the "new" president Rafsanjani making a grand bargain with the West, it might be too late. They have to make this bargain sooner perhaps in January! Otherwise they will be toast.