Wednesday November 3, 1999

The tragedy of Iran's reformist press has developed many climaxes over the past two years caused by conflicts with the conservatives. Abdullah Nouri, the managing director of the reformist Khordad daily, is now at the center of this tragedy.

When Iranian President Khatami, addressing a press conference in Paris, explicitly yet shamefacedly, declared that no Iranian journalist was in prison in Iran, the analysts of Iranian developments did not realize why the President was speaking with a shameful tone.

But in less than a week and following the President's return to Tehran, these analysts realized the reason behind Khatami's shame when Neshat Editor Mashallah Shamsulvaezeen was arrested and Abdullah Nouri tried.

Apparently, Khatami had pleaded with his opponents at the Judicial Branch to postpone the probe into and trial of Iran's reformist press to insure that his visit to France would be successful and devoid of concerns for home.

Khatami's shame in Paris was due to his awareness that once he returned to Tehran, the conservatives would launch the anti-press campaign anew.

The issue which creates concern is not so much Khatami's sense of helplessness than the overt boldness and audacity of the conservatives to extort him.

Khatami's close ally, Abdullah Nouri is now being tried by the conservatives amid growing concern that his chances of acquittal are very slim, given, of course, the grudge the conservatives bear against him.

Before his trial, Nouri, relying on the support of all reformist groups in Iran, was making a powerful leap to win a Parliament seat and even become Parliament speaker after the February elections.

Personality-wise, Nouri is an independent politician who favors to act as a loner, a quality which has kept him from membering any pro-Khatami political groups or organizations.

Even though he is a powerful and loyal supporter of Khatami, he is not even a member of the leftist Majma' Rouhaniyoom Mobarez (MRM). Nor does he join the technocrats at the Executives of Construction Party (ECP).

Abdullah Nouri's problem in confronting the conservatives emanated from his strategic blunder in the fifth Parliament when he accepted Khatami's offer to serve as interior minister and thus relinquished his Parliament seat.

Nouri thus deprived the pro-Khatami fraction in the Parliament of a powerful leader and directly exposed himself to attacks by the conservatives. Had he remained in the Parliament, he would have been able to resort to his Parliament immunity and political power to more strongly impact the conservative-ruled Parliament and its decisions.

But when he left the Parliament, Nouri created a serious vacuum for the reformists, a gap that has not been bridged so far.

When Nouri left his Parliament seat to become interior minister, the reformists tried to put leftist Majid Ansari, an MRM member, in his place, but Ansari never succeeded to do what Nouri had done and, in fact, over the past two years failed to have any important and serious impact on the Parliament decisions.

This is while the Iranian Parliament is heavily influenced by personal power. The impeachment of Minister of Culture Ataullah Mohajerani in spring well proved the fact that even though Khatami's opponents hold a majority of the seats, Mohajerani, with his powerful and enchanting words, convinced the right-wing Parliament to give him the vote of confidence for a second time in the face of the conservatives' unanimous pledge to remove him.

Relying on his strong and convincing speech, Mohajerani broke the unified ranks of the conservatives in Parliament and gained his vote of confidence from the right-dominated Parliament.

This is while by becoming minister, Nouri exposed himself to direct attacks by the conservatives who did not tolerate him for more than a year and who finally impeached him, robbing him of his power.

Even though within a few months, Nouri was able to win the majority of votes in the City Council elections and become the chairman of Tehran's City Council, he will not be able to return to the Parliament due to the new conservative move to bar him from running in the February elections by putting him on trial with heavy charges.

So far, Nouri was on the top of the reformists’ list of candidates for the February Parliament elections. But in case the court declares him guilty of the charges leveled against him, he will practically be disqualified from running in the election. This is because he would have a court case against him, a matter which will enable the Guardian Council to easily declare him disqualified.

On the whole, Nouri is paying the price for his strategic blunders over the past two years. Given the conservatives' firm resolve to unseat Nouri, the recent trial could be termed his "farewell to politics".

But this "farewell" could be temporary. The parallel being seen nine years back when Khatami, then minister of culture in Hashemi Rafsanjani's cabinet, had to resign under the mounting pressure exerted on him by the conservatives. At the time, no one could have imagined that nine years later Khatami would re-emerge in Iran's politics to win 20 millions of votes and become the country's President.

Although the reformists might be annoyed by the stumbling blocks created by the conservatives to bar the Khatami administration's progress, they should be thankful to the conservatives! This is because whenever the conservatives have targeted any reformist, that reformist has gained increased popularity and turned into a national figure.

The cases of (former Tehran mayor) Ghulam Hossein Karbaschi, Ataullah Mohajerani, and Abdullah Nouri are good proof of this claim. Even though all three have been the butt of attacks by the conservatives, they have gained high popularity among the people and as such have great chances of running for presidency in Iran in the years to come.