Iran President Bucks Conservatives, Reappoints Sacked Minister

WASHINGTON —  While Iran prepared to fight the United States on the soccer field to keep its World Cup hopes alive, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami fought off the biggest challenge of his presidency Sunday as conservatives in parliament impeached his interior minister, a key reformer.

But in a sign that he does not intend to yield to pressure, Khatami immediately turned around and named the sacked minister, Abdollah Nouri, to a newly created vice presidency. Iran’s seven vice presidents are all appointed and not subject to confirmation.

“Due to your capabilities and the importance of comprehensive and lasting development, especially political and social affairs, I appoint you as the deputy president for development and social affairs,” said a brief statement issued by the president’s office within an hour of the parliamentary decision.

Nouri, who was sacked after a no-confidence vote of 137 to 117, has been critical to Khatami’s efforts to open up Iran’s political and economic systems and ease rigid Islamic restrictions. Just last week, Khatami called him “a blessing.” Nouri has also been the chief public supporter of Tehran’s beleaguered mayor, who ran Khatami’s presidential campaign and is now on trial for corruption charges brought by the conservative judiciary.

In a second defiant move, the Iranian leader appointed Mostafa Tajzadeh as acting interior minister. Tajzadeh is another controversial reformer and a strong ally of Nouri who was cited during the parliamentary debate on Nouri’s future.

“This episode tells us that Khatami is self-confident and will meet every challenge the conservatives set up for him with whatever political means he has available because he’s determined to move Iran toward a new future,” said Judith Kipper, co-director of the Mideast program of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, who visited Iran last month.

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The political crisis came to a head Sunday after weeks of mounting tension produced by a conservative campaign to rein in Khatami’s young reformist government by discrediting its most prominent figures.

The impeachment drive was launched earlier this month by 31 conservative legislators who charged Nouri, a Shiite Muslim cleric, with “creating tension in society, giving provocative interviews and speeches . . . and appointing inexperienced people to managerial posts.”

Among the lawmakers’ complaints was that Nouri permitted recent student rallies against the conservative clergy’s influence. Conservatives also claimed that the societal relaxation over the past 10 months, since Khatami’s inauguration, has spawned divisive political tensions and social problems, including increased violence, crime and drug-smuggling.

Lurking in the background is the next parliamentary election, in 2000. After Khatami’s sweeping upset victory in the 1997 presidential election over parliamentary speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, conservative deputies of the parliament, the Majlis, fear they may be next, Iranian political analysts say. The Interior Ministry oversees elections as well as regional government and internal security.

Sunday’s debate in the packed unicameral legislature, which was attended by other Cabinet ministers and broadcast on nationwide radio, reflected the anger and emotions behind the political conflict. “If the current trend continues, the result will be something like Lebanon of a few years ago or Yugoslavia. Mr. Nouri’s attitude is dangerous to the political future of the country,” charged Mohammed Reza Bahonar, the conservative vice speaker of parliament.

Nouri defended his actions with a warning. “Be sure that the government is so powerful that it will not be weakened by issues such as this,” he said. “Whoever the interior minister may be, he must continue the path of political development,” a term used to describe reforms.

Nouri also warned that the Islamic government’s failure to reform has jeopardized its hold on the generation that has grown up since the 1979 revolution. These Iranians are the largest segment of society and were key to Khatami’s stunning victory.

When Nateq-Nuri announced Sunday’s vote, cries of “God is great!” went up in the chamber among conservative members of parliament.

In stark contrast to the domestic challenge, Khatami received an indirect boost from President Clinton on Sunday during the World Cup match. “As we cheer today’s game between American and Iranian athletes, I hope it can be another step toward ending the estrangement between our nations,” the president said in a televised message.

“I am pleased that over the last year, President Khatami and I have both worked to encourage more people-to-people exchanges and to help our citizens develop a better understanding of each other’s rich civilizations.”

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Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday that Khatami’s government has been responding to a demand by the majority of Iranians for “change and openness. These new voters have said they want to be part of the world,” she said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

Albright noted that the new U.S. approach to Tehran, outlined last week, does not include an apology for the past, despite Washington’s recognition of Iranian “resentment” toward past U.S. policy.

“It’s understandable that there was some resentment from the Iranian people, but we need to move forward,” she said. “We have to look at what can be done that leads toward normalization.”