Reforms inevitable in 'testament' letter: Khatami

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Monday that reform of the Islamic Republic was inevitable, in an open letter seen as a political testament before his parliamentary supporters give way to conservatives.
"There have been changes of such an extent in social, cultural and political relations that it is impossible to return to the period of before the reforms," Khatami said in a 47-page message carried by the official news agency IRNA.
Khatami, swept into office in 1997 and re-elected four years later on a tide of support mainly from young voters, has failed to keep his promises of major reforms as conservative-run institutions blocked his efforts and those of parliament.
"We do not pretend that our attempt to defend the rights of the people have succeeded in every domain, nor that the people have seen all their aspirations fulfilled," he said.
Khatami, a middle-ranking cleric who has set himself against the religious hard-liners in the country, asserted that "neither secularism nor dictatorship will prevail in Iran".
His second and last term ends next year, and he has become a lame duck president following electoral defeats of reformists at the hands of conservatives in municipal elections in 2003 and parliamentary polls in February 2004.
Khatami's powers are dwarfed by those of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is considered by conservatives to be one of their own.
His legislation has been blocked by conservative watchdog bodies which are also accused of having fixed the February elections by disqualifying dozens of pro-reform candidates.
Khatami said recently that he would say more in a future publication, as reformists considered how to recover from their stinging defeat and prepared for a period in the wilderness.
But his open letter Monday lacked revelations, as it gave a rundown of his successes in a bid to give heart to supporters.
He said that in the seven years since his first election the aspirations of the people had been strengthened, while the conservatives had been forced "to take into account, willy-nilly, of what they think to be the popular will."