People's choice takes over Iran

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami inherits a country struggling for acceptance.

Although Mr. Khatami faces major opposition to his internal political program, it is in foreign affairs that his toughest challenges will come. Each change he makes will be carefully examined. Each reform has the potential to arouse the anger of his opponents who are still smarting from their huge election defeat.

Mr. Khatami's opponents are the conservative and sometimes violent men who have been running Iran the way they want. Now they must come to grips with Mr. Khatami's efforts to move this willing country toward engagement with a globalized world.

One of the new president's first tasks was to form a cabinet. First to go was the foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, who has been widely linked to Iranian intelligence. He was replaced by Kamal Kharrazi, the UN ambassador. It is moves like this which will stamp Mr. Khatami's regime and enrage his conservative opposition.

The president will be tested fairly quickly on two fronts. The first, with huge ramifications for Iran and the world, is its relations with the U.S. The U.S. has made tiny, tentative steps toward encouraging Iran to seek rapprochement. Iran's leading newspaper has called on Washington to come to a compromise while state radio praised President Clinton for his signs of friendship and compromise.

The second problem is with Europe. A German court found the leaders of the previous Iranian regime had ordered the murder of Iranian dissidents abroad. Iran has already moved to try to cool the situation and has urged European ambassadors to return to Teheran.

What remains unknown is what Mr. Khatami will do to assure Europeans there will be no government-ordered murders. He must also act to remove all government support for the fatwa (a binding rule in religious matters) against the author Salman Rushdie.

The large, historic and culturally rich nation of Iran should be an intimate member of the world community. It can achieve that by agreeing to live by the same rules which guide the rest of the world. President Khatami could be the man to achieves this goal.

-- The Bangkok Post