Iran dissident says reform at end

Aghajari blames President Khatami for failing to bring change

A leading Iranian dissident has launched a new attack on the country's clerical establishment.

In an open letter, jailed academic Hashem Aghajari said efforts to reform the system of government had failed and he called for passive resistance.

Mr Aghajari made the comments just before the 20 February elections from which hardline clerics have excluded thousands of pro-reform candidates.

The reformist camp has conceded it is poised for defeat at the polls.

Mr Aghajari said that organising an "unfree election" marked an end for hope of reforms from within.

He blamed reformist President Mohammad Khatami for lacking the "will and courage" to bring about the change that he said most Iranians wanted.

He said the current generation should be given the right to choose its own structure of government and called for "passive resistance" to what he described as totalitarianism.

Mr Aghajari has long been a critic of the establishment. He was sentenced to death two years ago after he questioned the clergy's right to rule.

The verdict sparked weeks of student demonstrations in his support and the death sentence was later quashed by the supreme court.

Predictions

The right-wing vetting body, the Guardian Council, succeeded in barring 2,500 mainly reformist candidates from standing in the forthcoming election - including some 80 sitting MPs.

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At-a-glance

Another 550 candidates voluntarily pulled out of the poll on Saturday.

The main reformist coalition which is taking part in the elections has said it expects to lose the contest, with the reformists' ranks so depleted.

The spokesman for the eight reformist groups, Ali-Akbar Mohtashamipour, said the Reformist Coalition for Iran could not even compete at all for 72 of the 290 seats.

"We will be a minority in parliament," he said.

Mr Mohtashamipour himself had been permitted to stand. But he decided to withdraw his candidacy in protest at the "illegal and unfair eliminations".