Khatami: The Government is Fascist

By Reza Derakhshi and Fredrik Dahl

(Reuters) - A leading Iranian reformer accused hardliners of a "fascist or totalitarian" approach, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new cabinet prepared to hold its first meeting on Sunday after his disputed re-election in June.

The hard-hitting comment by former President Mohammad Khatami was a further sign of the moderate opposition's intention to keep up protests over an election it says was rigged.

It came three days after parliament approved most of Ahmadinejad's government ministers in a move that bolstered his position after nearly three months of political turmoil in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

The reshuffled government was due to meet for the first time on Sunday evening in the northeastern city of Mashhad, site of Shi'ite Iran's holiest shrine.

The presidential poll, which was followed by huge opposition demonstrations, plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deepening rifts within its ruling clerical and political elites.

The authorities reject charges the vote was fraudulent.

"We believe they destroyed in this election the biggest opportunity that had come about for the Islamic establishment and the country," Khatami said in a meeting with university professors in Tehran, the ILNA news agency reported.

He said: "We are opposed to the interpretation of religion by those who in the name of confronting Western liberalism want to drive people by force on to the path they regard as prosperous using a fascist or totalitarian approach."

The authorities have portrayed the opposition protests as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state's leadership. Last month, Iran began mass trials of senior reformist figures it accuses of fomenting the unrest, including Khatami allies.

The elite Revolutionary Guards and a pro-government Islamic militia put down the post-election street protests. The opposition says 72 people were killed in the violence, nearly three times the official estimate.

Khatami said the election had been an "opportunity to have the youth and people who were dissatisfied ... to return to the scene and make the right choice with hope in the establishment and the future."

Khatami, who was president in 1997-2005, backed opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in the vote. The Guards have called for both of them to be put on trial.

Another leading reformist criticised the cancellation of an annual religious ceremony where Khatami had been due to speak and which could have become a rallying point for moderates.

Iranian media said the Sept 9-11 event was called off after the authorities put pressure on its hosts.

"The cancellation of the ceremonies at Imam Khomeini's shrine will hurt the prestige of the Islamic Republic," said Mohammad Salamati, head of the moderate Islamic Revolution Mujahideen Organisation party, ILNA reported.