Iran Hard-liners Again Show Their Claws
August 14, 2003
The New York Times
Nazila Fathi
TEHRAN -- In another blow against Iran's reform movement, the country's hard-line watchdog rejected Wednesday three progressive bills approved by Parliament that could have increased civil rights.
The Guardian Council rejected two bills that required Iran to adopt United Nations conventions on eliminating torture and discrimination against women.
The third bill was aimed at curbing the Guardian Council's power to bar candidates from running for office.
The council's spokesman, Ibrahim Azizi, said that the bills were rejected because they were unconstitutional or against Islamic law.
But the move was widely considered as another blow to the reform movement prior to the next parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for February.
The Guardian Council has set up offices around the country to identify potential candidates and examine their political records.
Reformers have said that the offices are illegal. "We had predicted that the council would reject the bills because the current structure of the council is like a book that has been printed a million times and everyone is familiar with its contents," said Jafar Golbaz, a member of Parliament, Iranian Labor News Agency reported.
Golbaz said that the time had come for Parliament to use its constitutional power and put the election bill to a referendum. "By putting the issue on referendum, the fate of the matter will get out of both the Guardian Council and Parliament's hands," he added.
President Muhammad Khatami acknowledged in a speech Tuesday that his reform agenda had largely failed and warned his hard-line opponents that they were alienating the country's youth.
"Lately, speaking has become difficult for me because I feel that many of the ideas and programs I sincerely offered and the people voted for have not been materialized," he said.
Scores of activists, frustrated with the slow pace of reforms, remain in jails since pro-democracy protests around the country in June. Only a number of student activists were released after the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the judiciary to show leniency toward them.
The internal conflict is continuing as the international pressure is increasing on Iran to clarify its nuclear programs. Hard-liners have proposed that Iran should withdraw from the nonproliferation treaty as well while reformists close to Khatami are trying to ease the tension.
However, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, told reporters Wednesday that the result of the latest meetings with inspectors were positive.
A team from the UN nuclear agency arrived in Iran this week for another round of inspections. The team took environmental samples to determine the scale of nuclear tests already conducted. Another legal team came last week to explain Iran's obligations if it decided to sign on to an additional program.
Iran has come under pressure to sign a protocol that will allow intrusive and unexpected visits of its sites. The UN agency will review Iran's case Sept. 8 and may send the case to the Security Council if it finds that the program represents a threat.
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