TEHRAN, Iran - When President Mohammad Khatami appeared at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland two months ago, lecturing the rarefied crowd on the convergence of Islam and Western philosophy, he got a standing ovation.

Back home in Iran, Khatami was losing one of the most important battles of his presidency. A hard-line council of unelected clerics had banned thousands of pro-reform candidates from running in Iran's Feb. 20 parliamentary elections. Khatami pleaded publicly with the clerics to review the mass disqualifications and was assured there would be a compromise. But less than a week after his triumphant speech in the Swiss resort of Davos, the bans were upheld and conservatives were guaranteed victory before a single vote was cast.

It was a fitting symbol of Khatami's reign: He has become more popular abroad than at home. When he swept into power in a landslide in 1997, Khatami was the best hope for Iranians fed up with the clerical establishment. He also became a darling of the West for his lofty speeches about Islam and democracy, and the need for a "dialogue of civilizations."

But seven years later, as Islamic hard-liners prepare to take back control of parliament from Khatami's reformist allies, many Iranians are disillusioned with their president. They are fed up with the slow pace of reform and bitter that Khatami did not follow through on a threat to resign rather than oversee an unfair election.

"Khatami's credibility declined greatly after this election," said Hamid Reza Jalaeipour, a political sociologist at Tehran University and editor of three reformist newspapers that have been shut down in recent years. "He's seen as responsible for a sham election."

Iranians are especially angry at Khatami because he has threatened to resign twice in the past year - first, when clerics vetoed major reform bills, and later when they disqualified the reformist candidates - without following through.

"I voted for Khatami twice, and I was deceived both times," said Hassan Nouri, 41, a civil engineer walking along a Tehran shopping strip. "He wasn't strong enough to challenge the conservatives. How can he threaten to resign and not do it?"

The erudite Khatami, 60, whose well-trimmed beard, regal robes and ever-present smile set him apart from most of Iran's clerics, has 16 months left in his second term. But many Iranians already see him as a lame duck who is now even less likely to push any significant reforms past a newly conservative parliament and the unelected clerical councils that vet major laws.

Khatami's best chance for passing reforms began in 2000, said many analysts, including Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, a human rights campaigner. That's when voters handed reformers control of parliament for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought clerics to power.

Proposals came too late

But, said Ebadi, Khatami's proposals for political and social liberalization were too few and came too late in the term of that parliament. "Mr. Khatami has lost a golden opportunity," she said. "Naturally, in this last year of his presidency, he will not be able to do much."

Iranians expected an acceleration of the reforms that started in 1997, when Khatami was elected with 70 percent of the vote. He was then the most popular cleric since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Khatami had some initial successes: He eased social restrictions imposed by the clerics and encouraged Iranians to speak more freely. Women began adjusting their head scarves to show more hair; young men and women mingled at coffee shops without being hassled by religious police. Hundreds of pro-reform newspapers sprouted and, for the first time, debates about democracy flourished at universities.

But the hard-liners attacked the budding democracy movement, closing dozens of reformist newspapers and arresting hundreds of intellectuals and students. Reformers criticized Khatami for not resisting the crackdown strongly enough - and opening the door for conservatives to rebound.

Even Khatami's younger brother, who as deputy speaker of parliament was barred from seeking re-election, criticized his efforts. "President Khatami clearly was leader of the reforms," said Mohammad Reza Khatami, who heads the largest reform party, the Islamic Participation Front. "But he didn't work strongly enough and he ignored his leadership in the reforms."

Khatami's supporters say he has been hampered by Iran's theocratic system, which grants final say in all social and political matters to its supreme leader. The leader's word is regarded as infallible and he is thought to be responsible only to God. This unique structure was created for Khomeini and inherited by his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"President Khatami knows more than any of us that people want him to advance the reforms more rapidly," said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, one of six vice presidents and a Khatami ally for 25 years. "But in Iran, there are other political realities that need to be considered."

The clerical establishment exerts even more influence through the 12-member Guardian Council, whose members answer directly to Khamenei. The panel vets legislation and candidates for high political office based on loosely defined Islamic and legal grounds. It was responsible for the disqualification of 2,400 pro-reform candidates in last month's election.

Last year, backed by the reformist majority in parliament, Khatami tried to pass his most ambitious reforms: a bill giving the president control over Iran's judiciary and another stripping the Guardian Council of its power to veto legislation and candidates. Both measures were approved by parliament but vetoed by the council.

Khatami threatened to resign over the vetoes, but quickly changed his mind. Some advisers say he was influenced by the U.S.-led invasion of neighboring Iraq and tougher rhetoric from Washington about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

"He believes that his actions could have international consequences and could be harmful to the future of Iran," said Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister and close Khatami ally.

"If Khatami had resigned, there might have been a civil war," added Taha Hashemi, a once-conservative cleric who is now a reformer. "Khatami doesn't want the Islamic Revolution to collapse in his name."

In general, Khatami prefers consensus and compromise with the clerical establishment rather than confrontation. But to many Iranians, especially young people who handed him his landslide victories, that quiet approach looks like inaction.

"President Khatami and the reformers promised us many things, but they couldn't deliver anything," said Ali Kavian, 19, a computer science student at Tehran University who voted for Khatami in his second victory in 2001. Kavian used to keep a photo of the president in his room, but took it down last year when Khatami did not follow through on his threat to resign.

Bleak Future For Young

People under 25 form half of Iran's population of 66 million. They face a bleak economy with double-digit unemployment and inflation. Since the revolution, Iranians' average income has dropped 30 percent, to about $100 a month. More than a third of the population is estimated to live in poverty.

Young people hold Khatami responsible for their predicament, partly because of his grand rhetoric about freedom, democracy and eliminating poverty.

"Poverty is neither a concept nor an artificial plastic term," Khatami told the world's elite at Davos. "Poverty is a bitter and ugly reality which is housed in the weary and sunken eyes, drawn and haggard faces and empty hands of millions of people."

The speech highlighted Khatami's conviction that ideas drive history. He spoke of democracy not as an inherently Western political system, but one that is achieved through human suffering.

"He's a religious intellectual, but he's not a great decision-maker," said Jalaeipour, the professor and editor. "He doesn't know how to play politics."

Khatami was born in 1943, the son of a respected ayatollah. He entered the seminary in the holy city of Qom in 1961. After earning a bachelor's degree in philosophy, he continued his religious studies to reach the clerical level below an ayatollah.

In the mid-1970s, Khatami's campaigning against the ruling shah got him exiled to Germany. After the 1979 revolution, he was elected to parliament and then headed the Joint Command of the Armed Forces during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

In 1989, Khatami became minister of culture and Islamic guidance. He was credited with reviving Iranian music and movies. But his liberal views on women, youth and the role of religion prompted hard-liners to remove him in 1992. He then headed the National Library until his surprise election as president.

To his supporters, Khatami is a visionary whose ideas will ultimately prevail. But even they admit that Iranians do not have the patience to wait that long. "We are ready for a sprint, not a marathon," said Tajzadeh, the former deputy interior minister. "President Khatami has tried very hard to get us ready for a marathon, but this is not compatible with Iranian society. People want change very quickly."

Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc

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