Tehran, Jan 14: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami appealed today to reformist MPs staging a sit-in at the Iranian parliament over the mass disqualification of candidates from next month's elections to end their protest, promising them his government was taking action.
"The President stated that the rejection of candidacies was illegal and not acceptable," Reformist MP Ahmad Borghani said after closed-door talks with Khatami.
"He asked deputies to end the protest, and assured us that he and the government would use all means to obtain a revision of the disqualifications," added the MP, one of close
to 100 deputies who have been staging a sit-in at the Majlis building since Sunday.
Late on Sunday, Khatami raised the stakes in the crisis by threatening the mass resignation of reformers, including himself and his government. Borghani said Khatami had told deputies that he stood by that threat.
The reformist head of Iran's Parliament also launched a violent verbal attack on the powerful conservative political watchdog's attempt to disqualify massive numbers of reformers.
"We do not accept the attitude of the surveillance commissions, and the guardians council must reverse its decision. There is no other choice. They have made it so that we know in advance who is elected and who is not," Parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi told deputies.
"They have moved their pawns to control the Majlis." Karoubi said that of the 3,600 rejected candidates, "1,588 were disqualified without proof, 1,224 were accused of not respecting Islam, and 1,377 were judged has having failed to prove their aptitude."
Bureau Report
