Iran President Criticized for Soft Stance

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s restrained line toward the United States attacks on Afghanistan came under fire Saturday from his own defense minister as being too soft on the “enemy.”

Relentless U.S. attacks on neighboring Muslim Afghanistan and a spate of youth riots in Iran have provided fodder for a hard-line argument that Khatami may be sacrificing Iran’s revolutionary legacy for better ties with the West.

Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said Iran was “ignoring anti-American sentiments” rising in the Muslim world in the wake of the attacks on Afghanistan and called for a return to the radical ideals of the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“Our departure from Imam Khomeini’s ideas for a relentless fight against oppression and injustice risks pushing us into passivity,” Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

“There is an indispensable need today to return to the shining ideals of the imam as, unfortunately, some are ready to cheaply sell out our [cause] in the name of change.”

Iran has publicly condemned the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan, but Khatami has taken a low-key approach to the conflict, hoping that such a position will help Iran’s standing in the West.

The president says Iran must aim for a balance between its national interests and deep-rooted revolutionary values. But his position appears to be weakening, with growing unrest in Iran and with human casualties mounting in Afghanistan.

Shamkhani linked the U.S. military strikes with the riots that have erupted after soccer games in Tehran and several other cities in the last two weeks.

The riots followed opposition calls via satellite television broadcasts for demonstrations against the Islamic state.

“There is a well-designed effort to make Iran unsafe from within while expanding insecurity at its borders,” Shamkhani said.

“Bankrupt elements abroad are trying to use the satellite network to launch a political challenge. This shows that we have failed to seriously confront cultural threats.”