Tehran, July 12: In an unexpected move, President Mohammad Khatami said he will resign if people want him to go, amid growing public dissatisfaction over his failure to fulfill promises of democratic reforms, a newspaper reported today. "We are not masters of people but servants of this nation. If this nation says we don't want you, we will go," Khatami was quoted as saying by the government-owned daily, Iran.
Iran's formerly popular, elected president has come under increasing pressure in recent months to stand firm against unelected hard-liners and fulfill election promises of freedoms and democratic change. It was the first time he has publicly offered to resign.
Khatami made the comments in a speech in Karaj, west of the capital, Tehran, on thursday, but the state-run television and radio censored the part of his speech which dealt with a possible resignation.
Khatami's hopes for a compromise with hard-liners have been thwarted in recent weeks after the hard-line guardian council, that vets all parliamentary legislation, rejected two key reform bills presented by the President.
Those bills would have given greater powers to Khatami to stop constitutional violations by his hard-line opponents and bar the guardian council from arbitrary disqualification of candidates in legislative and presidential elections.
"We have to approve the qualifications of various candidates. If the people feel the programme they vote for meets obstacles, then they will not participate in the elections," iran quoted Khatami as saying. Bureau Report