KHATAMI SAYS HE WOULD RESIGN IF GOVERNMENT DO NOT MEET ASPIRATIONS
TEHRAN 5 May (IPS) President Mohammad Khatami said he would resign as president if he feels the government has made the slightest deviation in meeting the ideals of the revolution and from the reformist aspiration of the Iranian nation.
Addressing Sunday
a ceremony to introduce model teachers, Khatami assured the people that the
government has not lost its reformist
track despite all problems and difficulties,
the official news agency IRNA reported.
However, he admitted that there are problems with the government in meeting its platforms and principles, problems caused by "differences in traits or double standards", he said.
Khatami raised the spectre of resignation as many Iranian analysts, including supporters of changes, says reforms promised by the President during his first presidential campaign are "dead" and the people do not consider him has the leader of the reformist clan.
"Certain people are trying to create trouble and tumultuous atmosphere for their own gains whereas in a tranquil atmosphere one can meet the objectives of the nation be it at a slower pace", Mr. Khatami said without emphasising.
Though the embattled President has at several occasions complained that he meets obstacles "every nine days" by the anti-reform conservatives, yet it was the first time that he mentioned, though inconvincibly, the possibility of resigning, observers noted.
"If we manage to meet the wishes of the nation, people would accept us or else we will have to leave so that the nation pursue its own course", Mr. Khatami added, criticising the tough approach (by the conservatives) towards critics and leniency and silence towards certain others, who insult people and speak whatever they wish in certain places in the name of Islam and the revolution.
"Security did not mean safety for the statesmen, rather it meant freedom for all citizens, including authors, entrepreneurs, teachers and other social strata within the framework of the Constitution", Mr. Khatami said, without explaining why he has done nothing opposing Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic ordering the Judiciary to close down 84 publications and arrest a dozen of leading journalists.
Khatami went on to say, "As custodians of the religious government, we are in a highly sensitive position because the slightest wrongdoing on our part would deal the deadliest blow on the religion.
"In a world wherein such a negative mentality and attitude prevail against religious governments, we would be successful if manage to put forward a model of religious government, in which piety would not contradict freedom, man's dignity and the right to a choice," the president said.
Concluding his remarks, President Khatami called on teachers to try to present a model of religious government that would rely on national and religious identity in the society and will go neither with the imported western culture nor with the model presented by Taleban.
Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister
Yoriko Kawaguchi on Sunday met Iranian President Khatami and expressed
support for the Iranian leader's reform policy of accommodating a broad range of
views as well as multiple political parties, Japanese officials said.
The president stressed that he would continue with the reform policy, telling Kawaguchi that although some people oppose it, politics must now reflect the will of people, the officials added.
On the issue of rebuilding Afghanistan, the Japanese minister commended Iran for its support for the warn-torn country and proposed that Iran and Japan cooperate in fighting drug problems and in promoting education in Afghanistan, the officials said.
Khatami was quoted as telling Kawaguchi that Iran hopes to cooperate for peace and stability in Afghanistan.
In the meeting, Khatami criticised the United States for having named Iran as one of the countries forming an "axis of evil," saying he cannot accept Washington's position, which he described as intensifying tensions, according to the officials.
Ms. Kawaguchi arrived Friday evening to Tehran, coming from Kabol and in her extensive meetings with Iranian officials, including Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Majles (parliament) Speaker, Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karrroobi, she stressed on rapprochement between Tehran and Washington. ENDS KHATAMI RESIGNATION THREATS 5502