DATE=2/24/2000
TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=BIG VICTORY FOR REFORMERS IN IRANIAN ELECTION
NUMBER=6-11699
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: Results are still being counted in Iran, but
it is clear that reform candidates won a substantial
victory in last week's election, assuring them of a
majority in the Majlis or parliament. Reports from
Tehran say that after run-off elections in April, the
reform movement backing President Khatami could have
as much as an 80 percent majority in the legislature.
Around the world the daily press is dissecting the
results, and many papers are pleased at the prospect
of a more moderate government in the critical Middle
Eastern nation. We get a sampling of reaction now
from ___________ in today's World Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: It has been more than 20 years since the Shah
of Iran fled the country in the wake of a popular
uprising by supporters of a stern, Islamic cleric, the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He had run his campaign
for power in Tehran from exile in Paris, but when the
people had had enough of the ailing shah, he returned
triumphant. However, the ayatollah then instituted an
extremely harsh theocracy, in which orthodox Islamic
rules applied.
During the past few years, the increasingly youthful
population of the nation tired of the strict rules, as
the economy continued to stagnate. In 1997, young
voters joined with their by-now-disenchanted elders,
to elect a moderate cleric, Mohammed Khatami, as
president. But he has been hampered by the unelected,
but almost totally powerful successor to the Ayatollah
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khameini.
In last Friday's [2/18] elections, however, the reform
movement scored an even more impressive victory,
sending a clear majority of progressive, reform-minded
candidates to parliament, to support the president.
We begin our sampling in Paris, where the well-known
French daily Liberation noted:
VOICE: The Iranian reformists did not wait long
after their victory to speak about a change in
Iran's attitude toward the U-S. Reza Khatami,
President Khatami's brother and a great winner
of these elections, says that although the new
parliament cannot have a direct role on the
issue, "it can create a new atmosphere which can
in turn help to eliminate tension..." Because
relations with the U-S are a major domestic
policy issue in Iran, Reza Khatami's remarks can
be considered as a step forward in Iran's
traditional position.
TEXT: To Bavaria, in southern Germany, where Munich's
Sueddeutsche Zeitung observes:
VOICE: Germany and the other E-U [European
Union] states are perceiving the Iranian
elections as a true sign of change. During the
first wave of optimism, business groups are out-
doing each other with statements of respect for
Iran's reformers, and they are jockeying for the
best positions to gain access to the new market.
... [However,] terror and oppression still reign
in Iran; people are still being executed and the
simplest rights are being violated. Iran has
not turned into a stronghold of freedom and
democracy overnight.
TEXT: From Germany's financial capital, the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also sees the Iranian
results as a positive step.
VOICE: The election results give Iran the
chance of opening up to the world and of
changing its policies, which used to emphasize
confrontation and the export of fundamentalism.
The strengthening of reformers, however, is also
an opportunity for the West to check its
political stereotypes and fixations in the face
of a less fundamentalist Iran. Even America may
manage to overcome its reservations ... in light
of new possibilities.
TEXT: In Israel, for whose leaders Iran was long seen
as an intractable foe and a supporter of terrorist
groups such as Hezbollah, the Tel Aviv daily Yediot
Achronot is definitely pleased:
VOICE: The elections ... have had an unexpected
influence on the mood of the Arab world. The
fact that fanatical "revolutionary" Islam has
been rejected and defeated by almost the whole
Iranian population has made extremist Islamic
groups in other areas feel isolated and
abandoned. ... The reformists' victory in Tehran
is certainly the most positive event in the
Muslim world. But it also has other, worrisome
aspects -- similar to those which have
accompanied the fall of communism to this very
day.
TEXT: Turning to Cairo's internationally-known daily
al Ahram, we get an Egyptian perspective.
VOICE: Iran is currently witnessing the most
honest elections in the region. ... There is
public consensus on change conveyed, not through
bloody clashes and thuggery, but even more
powerfully, through the ballot boxes. This
revolution is empowered by the youth and veiled
women.
TEXT: In Israel's neighbor, Jordan, we read in the
Amman daily Al-Ra'y:
VOICE: The Iranian elections have finished safe
and sound and the results are going to have a
big effect on the future of the country and of
the region. ... The Americans received the
results of those elections with great joy and
praised them as if they represented their own
victory. But what is the future of the Iranian-
American relations? Do the leaders in the White
House think that they can control Iran and make
it subordinate after what happened in the
elections? I don't think so.
TEXT: In Beirut, the pro-Syrian daily Ash-Sharq
pondered the future of the Iranian-supported Hezbollah
organization, condemned by Israel as a terrorist gang
for its attacks in southern Lebanon.
VOICE: There are three possibilities for a
future relationship between Hezbollah and Iran:
1.) The relationship might not change at all.
... 2.) The relationship might be shaken because
the reformers might reduce the ... authority [of
Ali Khameini, Hezbollah's guide or counselor].
... 3.) The relationship between Hezbollah and
Iran might be restricted and pass through
Lebanese government channels only.
TEXT: From the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates daily
Al-Bayan, in Dubai, writes:
VOICE: There is no doubt that the recent
elections in Iran are important not only to Iran
but [also] in terms of Iran's regional and
international relations. ... We sincerely hope
the new developments in Iran will further foster
relations between Iran and the G-C-C [Gulf
Cooperation Council] countries and therefore
solve all pending issues between them by
peaceful means and build relations based on
confidence and cooperation.
TEXT: Quickly to New Delhi now, where The Times of
India views the changes in Iran in the perspective of
President Clinton's forthcoming trip to the region.
VOICE: Even as President Clinton considers
stopping over at Pakistan ... comes news of the
Islamic Republic of Iran adopting democracy
through the ballot box. ... The country that had
often been denounced as an extremist state by
successive U-S administrations has demonstrated
its unimpeachable democratic and moderate
credentials. ... Should [Mr.] Clinton go ahead
and stop over in Pakistan, he will be doing so
at the cost of moderate Islam. ... The right
place for President Clinton to stop over, if he
is serious in fighting religious fanaticism and
terrorism, will be the democratic and reformist
Iran, not Pakistan.
TEXT: Finally, from North America, we get this very
cautious, even skeptical Canadian view in this
editorial from the National Post in Toronto:
VOICE: ... It is already clear that a broad
alliance sympathetic to President Khatami's
policies has won control of Iran's parliament.
... But though Iran may be starting down the
right path, the breathlessly optimistic tone
that animates much of Western news reporting is
overblown. ... Increased foreign investment and
an overhaul of Iran's repressive system of
import controls may, indirectly, lead to the
normalization of foreign relations, greater
internal liberalism and an end to Iran's
sponsorship of terrorism. But such policies are
not central to Mr. Khatami's program. And they
have not happened yet.
TEXT: On that note from our northern neighbor, we
conclude this sampling of the world press on the
recent reformist victory in Iran's parliamentary
elections.
NEB/ANG/WTW
24-Feb-2000 17:29 PM EDT (24-Feb-2000 2229 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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