Bill Shingleton, "Gorby Rising in the East?" The Weekly Standard 30 June 1997
I was disappointed to read Peter Rodman's reference to Iranian president-elect Mohammed Khatemi as a possible "Mikhail Gorbachev of the Iranian Revolution" ("Mullah Dearest," June 16). While many in the United States believe that Khatemi is Iran's Gorbachev, their analysis could stand a dose of the facts.
Khatemi's record does not indicate that he is a reformer. His family came to prominence due to close relations with the family of the late Ayatollah Khomeni, relations that continue to this day. In the '70s, Khatemi worked for the Militant Clerics Association and the revolutionaries' propaganda arm. By 1982, his radical credentials were so well established that he was named minister of culture. Khatemi's lone reformist acts came in this post when he slightly loosened controls on the media and allowed live music. Accordingly, Khatemi's actions indicate a desire to trim the system's worst excesses, not reform the system itself.
Even if Khatemi were a reformer, he would face serious obstacles in the Iranian system. To initiate reforms, Khatemi must get the approval of reactionary spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni. Moreover, Khatemi has to cope with outgoing President Rafsanjani, who will head an expanded Expediency Council, and radical darling Nateq Nouri, the speaker of the parliament. Therefore, if Khatemi wants to reform Iranian society, he will need to make concessions to the reactionaries-probably in the form of a tougher foreign policy. Thus, Khatemi's politics and obstacles will mean a Khrushchev-like era (which brought us the Cuban Missile Crisis) in Iran.