Khatami's brother to head reform party

Mohammad Reza Khatami (left) says his brother's reforms are being targeted

Iran's largest political force, the pro-reform Islamic Iran Participation Front, has elected President Mohammad Khatami's younger brother as its leader.

Mohammad Reza Khatami was chosen by the party's central council at its first congress in Tehran. The party issued a statement saying it would continue to push for reform regardless of the pressures it faced.

The council had originally chosen a close advisor of the president, Saeed Hajjarian, who recently survived an assassination attempt. But he turned the job down, saying he was too ill to accept.

Saeed Hajjarian, who recently survived an assassination attempt, turned the job down

Iran is in the throes of a power struggle between reformists and hard-liners in the Islamic establishment. Hard-liners control the judiciary, which reformists claim is being used as a political instrument to stall reforms led by the president.

The right-wing judiciary has recently closed down 18 pro-reform newspapers and jailed several reformist writers and political activists, including student leaders.

Attacks

Mr Hajjarian, who attended the party congress in a wheelchair, called the reform process irreversible and said the IIPF should move forward "with force and determination".

Mohammad Reza Khatami, a 40-year-old urologist and parliament's deputy speaker, was elected to the two-year term on the second day of the congress.

On Thursday, he said hard-liners were intent on derailing the popular reforms of his elder brother.

He said several members of the IIPF had been attacked in the past few days, but the authorities had done nothing about pursuing suspects.

Strategies

"Press and parties are the basis of civil institutions," Mohammad Reza Khatami said. "After massacring the press and suppressing students, opponents of reforms are targeting political parties and effective personalities.

"We must change the political climate in the country, which is why the various reformist parties and other groups must adopt a new strategy."

He said those who were carrying out the anti-reform attacks were preparing for the 2001 presidential ballot, when the moderate President Khatami faces a re-election battle.

Mohammad Reza Khatami is married to the grand-daughter of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian revolution's late leader.

The surgeon, who recently spent a year at a London hospital, entered politics in 1997 after his brother won his landslide victory.

The IIPF, which includes both secular and religious leaders, became Iran's largest political force after general elections in February.