Defending Liberty is the Real Justice: Khatami

(MNA) – Former president Mohammad Khatami has criticized chanting slogans about justice, saying the real justice is to defend freedom of expression and to develop the country’s economy.

“If Justice is our motto, defending freedom and giving people the right to make criticisms is the real justice,” Khatami told a group of scholars and political activists in a meeting on Saturday.

Referring to the performance of his administration, Khatami said despite many unjust criticisms, the reformist government was committed to the Islamic Revolution’s objectives and strived to serve Islam, Iran, and the revolution.

However the reformist movement is unjustifiably accused of undermining Islamic values, Khatami lamented.

“Fighting against global arrogance does not mean increasing the expenses of the country. It means being independent, striving for the country’s development, increasing production, developing the economy, and raising the country’s standing in the world.”

The former president said it is necessary to fight against the hegemonic powers but chanting provocative slogans will give a pretext to the enemy to undermine the system and the country.

During the reformist government, American leaders admitted that they have adopted a wrong policy on Iran over the past 50 years, Khatami stated.

After nationalizing the oil industry in 1953, Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the CIA and British intelligence.

The U.S. involvement in the fall of Mossadegh was not publicly acknowledged until March 2000 when the then-secretary of state Madeleine Albright admitted that “the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.”

Albright acknowledged the coup's pivotal role in Iran-U.S. troubled relationship and came closer to apologizing than any American official ever has before.

Khatami said those fundamentalists who question the reformist government’s performance should not rely on false data, because fundamentalism is based on telling the truth to people.

Khatami criticized the government for its failure to properly supply electricity to citizens.

“During the reformist government, Iran suffered severe droughts but we planned everything and important actions were taken to preserve our self-sufficienc from wheat imports.”

The Ahmadinejad administration blames the drought for daily power outage in Iran which has become an order of the day. The administration has defined an electricity rationing program, imposing a two-hour daily blackout in rural and urban areas.

Some regions are also suffering daily cuts in water supply.

Referring to the 2009 presidential vote, Khatami said, “Instead of saying who should run for president and who should not, we need to focus on the plan of the one who will contest in the elections. We need to determine what plans he should implement and how he should implement them.”

The former president said the reformist faction should certainly contest in the next presidential vote. “We need to make sure that the government, which belongs to people, is not controlled by only a particular faction,” he stated.

Khatami said the reformist movement is not limited to reformist groups. “With all due respect to all groups and parties…I do not want to be regarded as the representative of a particular group.”

“I am proud that I have made every effort to pave the ground for the activities of various political groups during the reformist period.”

Referring to calls for him to contest in the upcoming presidential vote, Khatami said, “If I decide to run for president I will try to respond to the demands of various levels of society and if I decide to stay aside, I will explain my reasons to people.

“My decision is almost clear but I will announce it in the right time.”

Mohammad Khatami slams Ahmadinejad foreign policy

AFP Reports: Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami criticised the government's confrontational foreign policy, saying it plays into the hands of the enemy, in comments reported on Sunday.

"Aggressive and sharp slogans play into the enemy's hands to hurt the country and the system," Kargozaran newspaper quoted the reformist Khatami as saying in a speech in western Iran.

"Fighting the arrogance (the United States) should not mean increasing the costs of running the country."

Khatami was alluding to the defiant position taken by his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the standoff with the West over Iran's nuclear programme, which has prompted three sets of UN sanctions.

Since taking office in 2005, Ahmadinejad has also drawn international condemnation for his vitriolic verbal attacks on Israel, which he said was doomed to disappear.

Khatami also hit out at his successor's administration for "presenting wrong statistics" about its economic achievements over the past three years.

There has been speculation that Khatami, who was president from 1997 to 2005, may seek a third term in office in 2009.

Ahmadinejad, who put social justice on top his agenda when he campaigned for president, has come under fire from reformists and conservatives alike for his expansionist economic policies amid rising inflation.

Last week, former national security chief Hassan Rowhani accused Ahmadinejad of missing "golden opportunities" for growth offered by the high oil prices of the past year.

"Careless comments and slogans have inflicted enormous costs on the country and the people," said Rowhani, who was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator under Khatami's presidency.

He said "import costs have risen by 20 to 30 percent" as Iran's banking system has been hit by foreign sanctions.

He called on the government to pursue a "policy of detente" with the international community.

A moderate conservative who is close to another former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Rowhani too has been talked about as a possible contender in the 2009 election.

Karbaschi: Only Khatami and Karrubi can unite reformist camp

(MNA) – Servants of Construction Party Secretary General Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi believes that only top reformist figures Mahdi Karrubi and Mohammad Khatami can settle differences within the reformist camp.

“The key to resolve the problems among reformists is in the hands of Khatami and Karrubi,” Karbaschi told the Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

Mahdi Karrubi, the National Confidence Party Secretary General, said last week that he will announce within the next two weeks whether he will run for president or not. The announcement by Karrubi came after NCP spokesman Esmaeil Gerami-Moqaddam said on August 26 that the party has nominated Karrubi for the 2009 presidential elections.

The announcement was viewed as the first signs of division among reformists in the run-up for the presidential elections.

Immediately after the declaration by the NCP spokesman, the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization (IRMO) insisted that it will only back Mohammad Khatami for the presidential post.

Former president Khatami has so far resisted pressure to accept to contest next year’s election.

“The National Confidence Party’s decision to nominate Karrubi has created the first division among reformists as the Mojahedin Organization believes Khatami would be the reformist party’s nominee for the 2009 vote,” Mohsen Armin, of the IRMO central council, told the Mehr News Agency.

Armin also called on the IIPP and IRMO to coordinate their efforts to introduce Khatami as the reformist faction’s nominee.

Karbaschi refused to say whether he will endorse Karrubi or Khatami for president, saying on one hand Khatami may be a favorite candidate as he is known among the people, and on the other hand Karrubi may have some good characteristics to contest the elections.

However, the former Tehran mayor said reformists must agree on a single candidate by relying on “collective wisdom”.

He said his party will definitely back the consensus candidate.

He also said except Karrubi and Khatami a “third person” may also be proposed as the presidential candidate.

The reformists must just think of a single candidate and the competition with rivals should not turn into infighting and this is something that may happen in the reformist camp, the SCP chief underlined.

“Khatami and Karrubi as two members of the Assembly of Combatant Clerics who should be a model for the young Muslim generation should sit together and resolve this issue between themselves and don’t allow their supporters” to create differences among reformists by backing one against the other, the pragmatist politician noted.

If reformists face infighting then “rivals will laugh at both of them,” Karbaschi warned.

Some groups and figures have suggested nominating former Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) secretary Hassan Rowhani, former interior minister Abdollah Nouri, and former Management and Planning Organization director Mohammad-Ali Najafi. Both Nouri and Najafi are members of the Servants of Construction Party.

Asked about the nomination of one of these three persons, Karbaschi said the fact that who is better for nomination should be carefully discussed with due attention to the current situation of the country.