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| Axis of Evil |
| Pro-reform party threatens to quit Islamic regime |
| 2002-07-28 |
| Iran's main pro-reform party threatened Sunday to quit the Islamic regime unless the conservatives who still dominate the courts and security forces stop undermining the elected reformist administration. Might as well go ahead and quit, then... The Islamic Iran Participation Front insisted it would rather resolve the country's political crisis by dialogue, but warned it could no longer tolerate the conservatives' persistent undermining of the policies it was elected to implement. "We want to work towards agreement and not disagreement, and to hold a dialogue without preconditions in mutual respect," the party chief Mohammad-Reza Khatami, younger brother of moderate President Mohammad Khatami, said in a statement. "But if (the conservatives) do not heed the demands of the people that we have already given them a final warning to accept, then we can only withdraw the reformist presence -- that it is to say the legitimate elected representation -- from the regime." Ummm... So far "dialog" with the ayatollahs has consisted of saying "yes, sir" when told what to do... At its annual congress earlier this month, the Participation Front issued an ultimatum to conservatives within the Islamic regime to allow it to implement its mandate or face losing all popular legitimacy. Divine right theocracies don't have to worry about popular legitimacy... The Front, which holds 130 seats in the 290-seat pro-reform parliament and has five ministers in Khatami's government, is demanding the "right to call government institutions to account," particularly the courts and watchdog bodies which have so far blocked all reformist legislation. Mothers give up their children with much less fuss than dictators give up their power... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |