Iranian President Loads Cabinet With Pragmatists, Moderates

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s appointment of technocrats, independents and pragmatists to his new Cabinet on Tuesday is viewed by U.S. experts as a first step in creating a more open climate in Iran--and eventually even a thaw in relations with the United States.

But the Clinton administration said Tuesday that it awaits “results, results, results” before passing judgment on the new Tehran regime. State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin repeated a long-standing U.S. offer of an unconditional dialogue and said Washington is “watching very carefully” for policy shifts on Iran’s opposition to the Mideast peace process, on its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction and on its support for extremists.

In an interesting twist that parallels the rise of former U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright to the top of the American foreign policy community, Iran has tapped its long-serving U.N. ambassador, Kamal Kharrazi, to be foreign minister. Albright had no formal dialogue with Kharrazi in New York, but as peers at the world body the two did know each other, Rubin said.

Kharrazi, whose resume lists a doctorate in education from the University of Houston, was also a central figure in dealings between U.N. hostage negotiator Giandomenico Picco and Tehran during the successful 1990-91 push to win release of the last American and European hostages held by pro-Iranian militias in Lebanon, according to Iranian and U.S. sources. An Iranian source called him one of the architects of the effort.

Among Iranian diplomats, Kharrazi is “the person most experienced in the way the world works,” a well-placed U.S. official said. “He is also Western-savvy if not Western-oriented.”

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Like many in the new Iranian Cabinet, who still face confirmation in parliament, Kharrazi is a hard-working official whose “open-minded” and “realistic” views contrast with the dogmatic and often provocative rhetoric of other officials, said an Iranian analyst who knows the new officials.

“Kharrazi is generally low-key and cautious. But if he’s convinced that something serves the national interests, I think he’d be willing to take a risk” to promote a policy change, the analyst said.

Other key appointments are being interpreted as a statement of Khatami’s independence from traditional political pressures. By removing hard-liners linked with extremist activities, Khatami’s government may also be signaling a policy shift to the outside world, U.S. scholars say.

At the Intelligence Ministry, Khatami has replaced Ali Fallahian with Qorbanali Dorri Najafabadi. While Fallahian was widely linked with anti-Western attacks, Najafabadi is described by U.S. experts as a non-ideologue and a “facts-and-figures realist” who headed parliament’s budget and planning committee.

The intelligence appointment “will signal more restraint” in its clandestine activities, according to Shaul Bakhash, an Iran expert at George Mason University in Virginia and author of “Reign of the Ayatollahs.”

Najafabadi is also on two of the government’s most influential committees: the Council of Experts, which selects the supreme leader, the post held by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini until his death in 1989, and the Expediency Council, whose duties were recently expanded to advise the supreme leader on policy and national problems.

Perhaps most telling--and controversial--is the new president’s appointment of Ataollah Mohajerani to the Cultural and Islamic Guidance Ministry, Khatami’s own former post. In 1991, Mohajerani ignited an uproar by calling for Iran to restore relations with the United States.

“He appointed someone who is certain to follow in his footsteps, which means easing controls on cultural restrictions, films, books and magazines,” Bakhash said.

Mohajerani also wrote a series of columns, compiled as a book, on Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial “Satanic Verses,” which led Khomeini to issue an edict calling for Rushdie’s death for blasphemy. But Mohajerani’s actual target was the misunderstanding or misstatement of Islamic values, rather than Rushdie himself.

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This and other appointments are also likely to open the way for an eventual relaxation of the internal social and political climate in Iran, experts predict. “It’s all very encouraging in terms of our best hopes for Iran,” said Steve Fairbanks, a senior State Department analyst on Iran now on sabbatical at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Mohajerani’s views are sufficiently controversial, however, that he faces the likelihood of a strong challenge in the Majlis, or parliament, where debate on the appointments begins next Tuesday.

New Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani is the only Revolutionary Guard commander to be moved into a top position in the regular military.

New Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri, who held the same post between 1990-94 under President Hashemi Rafsanjani, is now more of a centrist interested in internal reform, experts say. Interior has control of internal security as well as provincial governors and mayors.

Overall, Khatami, who was inaugurated Aug. 3, has appointed a slate of ministers based on their credentials rather than their affiliation with the many interest groups and factions that have deeply fragmented Iran’s political establishment, according to Iranian officials and American experts.

Although none of the 22 appointments were women, Khatami is expected to name at least two women as vice presidents and several as vice ministers and directors general in what would be a major departure from past governments.