IRAN: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's reformist allies have said they could push for a rare referendum if two bills challenging the hardliners' grip on power were vetoed by conservatives.
Khatami, for the first time in his two-term presidency, was heading for a confrontation with his conservative rivals after submitting two bills to parliament that would strengthen his hand in passing through his reform agenda.
"If the bills are not approved by conservative establishments, one of the choices could be a referendum," the Aftab-e Yazd daily quoted Mr Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission as saying.
The passage of the bills through parliament comes as thousands of pro-reform students have been staging almost daily protests against a dissident's death sentence, further heightening political tension in the Islamic Republic.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's most powerful figure, has warned officials to settle their differences or face "popular intervention", comments seen as a reference to the Basij militia, a volunteer force answerable only to the leader.
Some five million Basijis are due to turn out on the streets at nationwide annual anti-Israel protests in 10 days, the hardline Kayhan newspaper said. This would be much greater than in previous years.
One parliamentarian has said reformists were also able to call the people out onto the streets, if necessary. The issue over popular backing goes to the heart of the row between Iran's factions - whether Islam or the republic, religion or democracy, has supremacy in the Islamic Republic.
For reformers, the issue is clear-cut. "Referendum, referendum" has become a rallying cry for the students. Reformists say only a two-thirds majority in parliament is needed to hold a referendum, while conservatives insist the motion would still need the approval of the conservative-dominated Guardian Council and Khamenei.
Only two national referendums have been held in post-revolutionary Iran, once to establish the Islamic Republic in 1979 and another to amend the constitution in 1989.
So far only small clashes have broken out between students and hardliners, but reformists accuse their rivals of trying to spark violence as a pretext for a crackdown to derail the bills.
One bill makes the judiciary more accountable, the other abolishes the Guardian Council's power to veto poll candidates. The 12-man Guardian Council still retains a veto on legislation it says violates Islamic law or the constitution.Frustrated by conservatives repeated rejection of their reforms for nearly five years, reformists, including Khatami, have warned they might resign if, as seems likely, the conservatives block the proposed bills. Analysts say any possible resignations would occur only after a referendum had been formally disallowed.
"If the bills are rejected, we should expect important decisions," hinted Mirdamadi.
Against this background of domestic political instability is the likelihood of war across Iran's western border in Iraq. Analysts say the president might be reluctant to trigger unrest in Iran while two of Tehran's old foes, Iraq and the United States, are fighting it out on Iran's doorstep.
- (Reuters)