FOREIGN MINISTER KAMAL KHARRAZI RESIGNED
TEHRAN 27 May (IPS) Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi resigned from
office, the Paris-based "Iran va Jahan" (Iran and the World) website
said Monday.
Quoting "well-informed" sources in Tehran, the website that publishes news and views about Iran that appears both in the local and international media said it was not clear if the resignation had been accepted or not by the embattled President Mohammad Khatami.
Though it is not clear what prompted Mr. Kharrazi to resign, but the un-impressive, un-charismatic and austere looking Foreign Minister was under increasing criticism and attacks from the reformists, both at the Majles and the press, for his weak handling of the nation’s foreign policy, particularly the set backs Iran suffered in Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
A former Head of the official news agency IRNA and an Envoy to the United Nations in New York, Mr. Kharrazi was named as Foreign Minister by Mr. Khatami in 1997 in a compromise with Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, who, as the leader of the Islamic Republic, has the upper hand in deciding the regime’s foreign policy.
The dramatic resignation, the most important so far in Hojjatoleslam Khatami’s five years-old presidency comes at a time that the issue of opening dialogue with the United States has heated up to the point that on order from the lamed leader, the press was banned last week from publishing anything favourable to talks with Washington. ENDS KHARRAZI RESIGN 27502