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Emotional Khatami Will Seek Re-Election
TEHRAN, May 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - President Mohammad Khatami announced Friday he will stand for re-election next month in a tear-filled speech warning there was still a "heavy price" to pay for democracy in Iran.
The 57-year-old reformist cleric, whose moves to liberalize Iran have been bitterly opposed by the conservative establishment, said he would have ideally preferred to serve the nation in some other capacity.
"There was talk that I doubted whether to stand, and it is true," he said in a 15-minute speech at the interior ministry after filing official papers to launch his bid for re-election when voters go to the polls June 8th.
"The origin of my doubts was the future, and concern about the future, of the revolution and the nation, and I am still concerned," he said.
"Unfortunately we have so far paid a heavy price for democracy, and there will be more to pay," he said, making clear allusion to the conservative counter-attack against his liberalizing social and political reforms.
"I would have preferred to serve the nation and the people outside of the presidency," he said, acknowledging that his months-long silence over whether to run had fuelled intense speculation about the fate of his reform movement.
Khatami is widely expected to win a second term from voters, although anything less than the landslide mandate he won in 1997, with nearly 70% of the popular vote, will be seen by many as a victory for conservatives.
He had especially strong support from women and young people four years ago but reformists fear the powerful conservative counter-attack, which has brought his agenda to a virtual standstill, has undermined some of his popular support.
Conservatives take their cue from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state and has not shied away from directly intervening in daily affairs in recent months.
Last year he blocked parliament, which is dominated by reformists, from considering amendments to Iran's press code, which was used by the courts to shutter more than 30, mostly pro-Khatami, newspapers and journals.
Khatami himself has publicly lamented the limited powers of his office, which has no control over the conservative-dominated courts, police, and army, to fulfill his pledge to institute the rule of law in Iran.
The suspension of a pro-Khatami newspaper in 1999 set off the worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and helped fuel conservative calls to slow down the reformist movement.
Since then, every major pro-reform newspaper has been shuttered, the main opposition party has been closed down, and dozens of Khatami allies, student leaders, opposition figures, journalists, politicians and dissident clerics, have been jailed or are awaiting trial.
The 1998 murders of several leading dissidents and intellectuals, blamed on rogue intelligence agents, shocked the nation and sparked charges from some reformists of a "shadow government" with its hands on the real levers of power.
Khatami has publicly acknowledged his limited powers, and last October said the campaign against his reform movement was "sick".
"I must admit that we were not up to the task," he said, recalling the popular euphoria of his election four years ago and the now often bitter political battling that seems likely to increase during the election campaign.
"I will not forget the obstacles, the difficulties and the suffering," he said.
"The majority of the problems we have been confronted with in the past four years were outside the scope of the government and the president, and were imposed on us," he said.
Khatami stressed that democracy had "taken root in Iran thanks to the [Islamic] revolution" and underlined that he was ultimately standing as a candidate because it was the will of the people.
With two days still to go for candidates to register for the presidential polls, it remains unclear who will be the leading conservative candidate to challenge Khatami, who is nevertheless expected to win the election.
Former intelligence chief Ali Fallahian and university chancellor Abdollah Josbi are the most prominent conservative figures to step forward so far.
The former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaie, has been mentioned as a possible candidate; while onetime labor minister Ahmad Tavakoli has also said he will run.
"It is in full awareness, taking stock of the general situation of the nation and responding to the love and the hope of the people, that I have answered the people's call - and now I am here," said Khatami.
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