Iran’s Khatami Says He Can’t Rein In Hard-Liners

President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday accused his hard-line opponents of constitutional violations and said he is powerless to stop them--his first such statement since his 1997 election and the clearest sign yet of the ongoing power struggle in Iran.

“I declare that after 3 1/2 years as president, I don’t have sufficient powers to implement the constitution, which is my biggest responsibility,” said Khatami, a moderate who has been an extremely popular president. “In practice, the president is unable to stop the trend of violations or force implementation of the constitution.”

Addressing a conference on the constitution, Khatami said he has refrained from elaborating on the anti-constitutional activities of his opponents to “avoid tension.” He warned, however, that he would report to the nation at the end of his four-year term.

Earlier this year, Khatami said he would run for reelection in May, but this month he said he was undecided.

Khatami, whose pro-democracy reforms have been opposed by hard-liners at every turn, said the closed-door, no-jury courts that are being used to try journalists and political activists are an example of how the constitution is being trampled. He said ambiguous charges of “disturbing the public opinion” and “undermining the establishment” were used by the hard-liners to convict moderates.

The judiciary, which is controlled by hard-liners, has shut down 30 publications--all but one of them pro-reform newspapers--since it began a press crackdown in April in a bid to undercut Khatami’s overwhelming public support and roll back social and political reforms.

On Sunday, about 2,000 students gathered in central Tehran, the capital, to denounce hard-line actions, with several leading reformists calling the reform movement unstoppable. Most Iranians want greater political freedoms and liberalization of Islamic social laws that ban such things as satellite dish antennas, dating and listening to most Western music.