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Keyword: khatami

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  • Iranian mob attacks moderate ex-president Mohammed Khatami on anniversary

    02/10/2009 9:07:53 AM PST · by rightwingintelligentsia · 3 replies · 352+ views
    Times Online UK ^ | February 10, 2009 | Catherine Philp
    Iran’s former president was set upon by an angry stick-wielding mob today amid celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on the streets of Tehran. The attack on Mohammed Khatami came just two days after the reformist cleric announced he would be running against the hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June's presidential elections. Mr Khatami, then a little known cleric, came to global attention when he was elected to the presidency in 1997, capturing almost 70 per cent of the vote. Succeeded in 2005 by Mr Ahmadinejad, he blamed hardline elements in the clerical establishment for obstructing his...
  • Iran ex-leader welcomes US dialogue [ Rafsanjani ]

    02/09/2009 4:22:32 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 659+ views
    al-Jazeera ^ | Monday, February 9, 2009 | Al Jazeera and agencies
    A proposal by the United States to begin dialogue with Iran has been cautiously welcomed by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president. Iran is also prepared to help Washington in its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rafsanjani told Al Jazeera on Monday... Rafsanjani's comments came after Joe Biden, the US vice-president, said that Washington is open to negotiations with Tehran if it abandons its nuclear programme... The US and other Western powers say that Tehran's uranium enrichment programme is focused towards the manufacture of a nuclear weapon. Iran, for its part, says that it is not trying to...
  • Mohammad Khatami, Iran's former president, to stand in elections against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

    02/08/2009 5:19:53 PM PST · by bruinbirdman · 9 replies · 619+ views
    The Telegraph ^ | 2/8/2009
    Mohammad Khatami, who served as Iran's first reformist president between 1997 and 2005 and oversaw a thaw in ties with the West, said on Sunday that he would run for the presidency again in the June election. The race will pit Mr Khatami against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has presided over a deterioration of ties with the West amid tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Here I am announcing that I will seriously take part as a candidate for the election," Mr Khatami, 65, said after he held talks with an association of moderate clerics. "I never had doubt. Is it...
  • Top Iranian reformer to challenge Ahmadinejad, reports say (Khatami)

    02/08/2009 11:32:29 AM PST · by nickcarraway · 18 replies · 1,102+ views
    CNN ^ | 2/8/09
    Ending weeks of speculation, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami announced Sunday that he will run against the hardline incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to Iranian media reports. "I declare that I will stand for the next elections," Khatami told reporters on Sunday, according to Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA. Khatami, a leading reformist, had indicated for weeks that he intended to run in the June elections. Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency also reported that Khatami formally declared his candidacy on Sunday.
  • Openings for US-Iran Deal? (LoL - pathetically naive)

    10/13/2008 6:26:20 PM PDT · by nuconvert · 6 replies · 483+ views
    yahoo/The Nation ^ | Oct 13, 2008
    Oct 13,2008 The Nation -- The elections in Iran are nearly a year away, but it's encouraging to see the emerging possibility of a new bid for the presidency by former President Mohammad Khatami. Last week, he hinted that he's considering running against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the nutball whose support lies mainly in the paramilitary Basij force and elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Can Khatami ju-jitsu the all-powerful Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and his election-rigging Guardian Council? Can Khatami loom so large that even Khamenei might choose to support him over Ahmadinejad? Might Khamenei decide to back Khatami as...
  • Khatami slams Ahmadinejad foreign policy

    09/22/2008 6:07:49 PM PDT · by markomalley · 2 replies · 112+ views
    “Aggressive and sharp slogans play into the enemy’s hands to hurt the country and the system”, Kargozaran newspaper quoted the reformist Khatami as saying in a speech. “Fighting ‘global arrogance’ [the United States] should not mean increasing the costs of governing the country”. Khatami was alluding to the defiant position taken by his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the standoff with the West over Iran’s nuclear program, which has prompted three sets of UN sanctions. Since taking office in 2005, Ahmadinejad has also drawn international condemnation for his vitriolic verbal attacks on Israel, which he said was doomed to disappear. Khatami...
  • Khatami may challenge Ahmadinejad

    06/18/2008 6:40:23 PM PDT · by nuconvert · 2 replies · 126+ views
    The Peninsula ^ | June 18, 2008
    Khatami may challenge Ahmadinejad Tehran • Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami is considering opposing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in next year's presidential elections, Fars news agency reported yesterday. Khatami has sent a letter to renowned political personalities in Iran asking them to make an assessment whether he should run in next June's elections, Fars reported. There has been no reaction yet by Khatami himself to the report. The 64-year-old Khatami was president from 1997 to 2005 and initiated the reform wave in the country under the motto "dialogue among civilizations." His vision of an Islamic democracy however failed due to resistance by...
  • Iran ex-president rebuked over insurgent remarks

    05/06/2008 1:16:46 PM PDT · by knighthawk · 4 replies · 159+ views
    Iran Focus ^ | May 05 2008 | AFP
    TEHRAN (AFP) — Former Iranian president Mohamad Khatami was under fire from hardliners on Monday after comments interpreted as accusing the country's clerical leaders of supporting insurgents in the Middle East. The hardline Kayhan newspaper accused the reformist Khatami of tarnishing the Islamic republic's reputation by implying it was carrying out "sabotage" work in other countries through insurgent groups. In his speech, Khatami referred to the ambition of Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to export the 1979 Islamic revolution around the world, but expressed fear this wish was being distorted. "What did the imam (Khomeini) mean by exporting the...
  • Khomeini Granddaughter Slams Hard-Liners

    03/12/2008 1:16:33 PM PDT · by decimon · 13 replies · 484+ views
    Associated Press ^ | March 12, 2008 | LEE KEATH and ALI AKBAR DAREINI
    TEHRAN, Iran - She is a granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, but Zahra Eshraghi has long been a leader of reformers seeking to liberalize Iran. She sees dark days for the country, at least in the short run, given the hard-liners' lock on power. To break that hold, she says, former reformist President Mohammad Khatami must run against hard-line leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next year. "The only way to save the country is for Khatami to run next year in presidential elections. He is the only one who will defeat Ahmadinejad," Eshraghi told The Associated...
  • Khamenei Warns of 'Enemy Plots' Ahead of Iran Vote (Parliamentary elections)

    12/30/2007 6:59:09 AM PST · by nuconvert · 2 replies · 200+ views
    YahooNews/AFP ^ | December 29, 2007
    Warns of 'Enemy Plots' Ahead of Iran Vote December 29, 2007 AFP/ Yahoo News! TEHRAN -- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday urged Iranians to be alert against enemy plots ahead of legislative elections next March, in statements broadcast on state television. "The Iranian nation has to be alert" ahead of the polls, Khamenei told visitors in remarks made on the occasion of the Eid al-Qadir feast which commemorates the Prophet Mohammed's last sermon. Khamenei described the March elections as a major test of wills for the Iranian people. "The enemy may benefit from any negligence and hurt...
  • Why Iran’s Mullahs Must Have the Bomb?

    12/15/2007 6:12:16 PM PST · by Son of Dis · 8 replies · 387+ views
    Faith Freedom International ^ | December 15, 2007 | Amil Imani
    Why Iran’s Mullahs must have the bomb? Because their very survival depends on it; because they know how vastly unpopular they are at home; and because they have absolutely no legitimacy to exist, and the bomb would give them a greater freedom to obliterate the freedom-loving Iranian people with impunity and export their brand of Islam outside Iran’s boundary with carte blanche. Perhaps the most salient element of wanting to acquire the bomb is what the Ayatollah Khomeini was worried about: the existence of Islam in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran is consciously aware that once its Islamic Empire...
  • Former Iranian president publicly assails Ahmadinejad (Don't be Fooled)

    12/12/2007 5:58:55 AM PST · by nuconvert · 16 replies · 570+ views
    Former Iranian president publicly assails Ahmadinejad By Nazila Fathi Wednesday, December 12, 2007 TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies were attacked Tuesday at Tehran's major university in an unusual speech by his predecessor, who warned that political suppression, questionable economic policies and defiance on the nuclear issue were leading Iranians in the wrong direction. The speech, by Mohammad Khatami, attracted more than 1,000 students at Tehran University, which has been a center of vocal protest against Ahmadinejad, who was elected in 2005. Khatami's criticism of Ahmadinejad has long been known. But his public denunciation of Ahmadinejad's policies was unusual because of...
  • Iran-Mexico deepens ties to Islam Calderon/Khatami in effort to bypass confrontational West

    12/08/2007 1:40:33 PM PST · by Tigen · 7 replies · 245+ views
    WorldNetDaily.com ^ | December 7, 2007 | Jerome R. Corsi
    In a little notice meeting reflecting growing ties between South America and the Islamic world, Mexican President Felipe Calderon welcomed former Iranian President Mohamed Khatami to Mexico City. The two leaders met Wednesday at Los Pinos, Mexico's official presidential residence, to discuss deepening cultural bonds with the Islamic world in the face of Western notions of a "clash of civilizations. The visit drew virtually no mention in the press outside of Mexico, even in Iran.
  • Iran's nuke news shows danger of trusting this regime

    12/05/2007 1:41:55 PM PST · by knighthawk · 15 replies · 101+ views
    NY Daily News ^ | December 05 2007 | MICHAEL RUBIN
    Congressional Democrats have seized upon the latest National Intelligence Estimate - which says Iran stopped pursuing nuclear weapons in 2003 - with great relish. They suggest it proves that not only did the Bush administration exaggerate the threat of a nuclear Iran, but that the White House, in its drive for hard-line sanctions backed by military force, has been far too skeptical of diplomacy. In a statement yesterday, Sen.Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chastised President Bush, saying his "actions are doubly dangerous because they undercut the cooperation we need from other countries for dealing with...
  • Iran: Use of the word 'women' banned from state TV

    11/29/2007 5:21:56 PM PST · by camerakid400 · 38 replies · 150+ views
    AKI ^ | Nov 29 2007
    Tehran, 29 Nov. (AKI) - The word 'women' must now be replaced on Iranian state television by 'family', reformist Norouz news agency reports. In programmes broadcast throughout the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women last Sunday, Iranian state TV used the world family instead. In recent weeks, Iran's Centre for the Participation of Women changed its name to the Centre for Family Matters. At the time of former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, the centre was set up within the president's office. Khatami was president of Iran from 1997 to 2005.
  • Khatami to Lead Iranian Opposition in Elections, Says Brother

    10/06/2007 6:55:53 AM PDT · by nuconvert · 10 replies · 463+ views
    Deutsche Presse-Agentur ^ | October 06, 2007
    Khatami to Lead Iranian Opposition in Elections, Says Brother October 06, 2007 Deutsche Presse-Agentur monstersandcritics.com Tehran -- Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami will lead the opposition coalition in next the country's March parliamentary elections, the cleric's brother told the Fars news agency on Saturday. 'As far as I know, he will not directly nominate himself but lead the (opposition) coalition,' Mohammad-Reza Khatami of the reformist Islamic Participation Front said. After the two defeats of the 2004 parliamentary and 2005 presidential elections, the reformist and moderate factions formed a coalition and hope to regain power in 2008. The Iranian parliament is...
  • Fooled by Winds of Reform

    08/24/2007 6:19:46 PM PDT · by nuconvert · 5 replies · 392+ views
    N.Y. Times ^ | August 24, 2007
    Fooled by Winds of Reform Camelia Entekhabifard On many early mornings in Tehran, my uncle Ali would bang on our door to deliver large heaps of mammoth mushrooms from the mountain of Shemiran. Every summer and early autumn when I saw thunderstorms gathering in the sky, I knew we would have giant bunches of wild, tasty mushrooms the following day. My uncle believed that the storms pushed the mushrooms up from beneath the mountain’s numerous stones. Mushroom hunters like Ali would wake up early the next morning to go after those fresh, juicy mushrooms and cut off their heads. As...
  • Iranian Ex-President Khatami Denounced for “Sex Scandal”

    07/03/2007 8:38:39 AM PDT · by John Semmens · 6 replies · 500+ views
    azconservative ^ | 28 June 2007 | John Semmens
    Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami's hardline foes have expressed outrage over video footage circulating on the Internet which seems to show the former president shaking hands with several women on a recent trip to Italy. According to Islam's Sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related. Whether at home or on trips abroad, Iran's officials studiously avoid handshakes with females. Khatami denied that he had shaken hands with any woman on his trip, asserting that the person in the video who appears to be wearing a...
  • IRAN: KHATAMI'S CLERIC STATUS AT RISK OVER HANDSHAKE WITH ITALIAN WOMEN (Islamic Karma)

    06/15/2007 6:47:18 PM PDT · by DogByte6RER · 14 replies · 1,033+ views
    adnkronosinternational ^ | Jun-15-07 17:09 | AKI
    IRAN: KHATAMI'S CLERIC STATUS AT RISK OVER HANDSHAKE WITH ITALIAN WOMEN Tehran, 15 June (AKI) - Former Iranian president Mohamed Khatami could be tried by a religious tribunal and banned from preaching over a handshake, Iranian conservative papers report. Websites close to the ultraconservative government of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad such as Rajanews and Ansarnews said on Friday that an increasing number of clerics in the holy Shiite city of Qom believe the moderate cleric who was president of Iran from 1997 to 2005 should be convicted for his behaviour as recently demanded by Ahmadinejad's official biographer, Fatemeh Rajabi. Rajabi is...
  • Iran's Khatami: Pope Comments Still Hurt

    05/05/2007 2:05:42 PM PDT · by humint · 26 replies · 576+ views
    Global Chinese Christian News Service ^ | Saturday, May. 5, 2007 | The Associated Press
    VATICAN CITY (AP) - Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met Friday with Pope Benedict XVI for talks the Vatican hoped would help heal tensions left from the pontiff's remarks on Islam and violence, but the Iranian said the wounds were still very deep. Khatami, a reformist in power from 1997 to 2005, had been scheduled to meet with Benedict in October but the meeting was canceled. No reason was given, but it was just weeks after Benedict's speech in Germany about Islam touched off protests across the Muslim world. On Friday, the two men spoke about the importance of "a...