Iran's president says he will try to push parliament for reform

TEHRAN, Iran -- President Mohammad Khatami boldly challenged the religious hard-liners blocking his efforts to make Iran more democratic, vowing Wednesday to present a bill to parliament that would give him more power.

Khatami's public initiative is a sharp change from the behind-the-scenes lobbying he has used in the past to push his reform program and risks a rebuke from his unelected opponents who wield most of the power in Iran.

"The best, most secure and legal option for this country is Islamic democracy, where both religion and freedoms are respected," Khatami told a packed news conference in Tehran. "That is my promise to the nation."

The reformist president appeared to be gambling to enhance his standing with a public impatient with the slow pace of liberalization.

Since being elected in 1997, Khatami has seen his power eroded with the arrests of pro-reform activists and closures of liberal newspapers. He was re-elected last year.

His promises to bring civil freedoms to Iran have been sabotaged by hard-liners, who control unelected institutions like the judiciary and are supported by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who outranks the elected president.

Any reforms Khatami proposes are expected to be passed by the reformist-dominated parliament. But the bill must also be approved by the hard-line oversight body.

, the unelected Guardian Council, which has in the past rejected reforms proposed by parliament.

Khatami said Wednesday he did not expect the Guardian Council to oppose his presidential powers bill.

"The Guardian Council can either say a bill is against Islam or the constitution. The bill I'll present is part of the constitution and it is definitely not against Islam," he said.

With his announcement Wednesday, Khatami was saying that he sought to implement reforms "but failed," said Karim Arqandehpour, a leading reformist journalist and deputy head of the Press Guild Association.

"Now, he's making it public," Arqandehpour said. "Khatami made one of his most important and transparent speeches to the nation on the obstacles" to reforms.

Hard-liners went on the offensive against Khatami and his allies after losing control of the powerful Majlis, or parliament, in February 2000 legislative elections.

Since then, the judiciary has closed down more than 80 reformist newspapers and jailed several dozen political activists, mostly in closed trials without a jury.

On relations with the United States, Khatami said his government would pursue its policy of detente but that Iran would defend its interests if attacked by America.

"I hope the U.S. makes no mischief against Iran. I advise America to give up its policy of threats. Intervention in Iran will create instability throughout the region," he said.

He said the Clinton administration "was more realistic" than the current Bush administration, but avoided answering directly if Iran had missed a chance under then-President Clinton to improve its relations with Washington.

"We haven't said there will never be a change in (our) policy toward America. America's policies have created concern in the world. We hope wisdom and consciousness is once again employed and America reconsiders its policies," he said.

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic ties after militant students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Khatami encouraged people-to-people contacts but stopped short of calling for resumption of ties. Relations deteriorated after President Bush accused Iran in January of being part of an "axis of evil."