The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 2/10/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Vahid Salemi - Associated Press Iran's former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, left, gestures to his cleric allies, in a ceremony organized by his party, a group of pro-reform clerics, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday. Iran's former reformist president declared Sunday that he will run for president again in the country's upcoming elections, posing a serious challenge to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

TEHRAN, Iran - The battered reformist movement was energized with hopes of a political comeback Monday after their most powerful advocate, Mohammad Khatami, entered the race for president, a match up one liberal Web site predicted would be "an Armageddon between reformists and hardliners."

Khatami, who was president from 1997-2005 and previously expressed reluctance to run again, is seen by many reformists as their white knight, the only candidate with a real chance of beating hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Supporters see the cleric, whose calls for better ties with the West provides a stark contrast to Ahmadinejad's tough rhetoric, as warming U.S.-Iranian ties, even opening a dialogue with Barack Obama.

But Khatami, who announced his candidacy Sunday, faces a tough campaign. Reformists are divided, and the ruling religious establishment backs the current president.

Ahmadinejad is believed to be vulnerable in the June elections because of public anger over issues including fuel shortages, inflation and his confrontational stances toward the West. But few saw any candidate with the stature to defeat him.

A match-up between him and Khatami, however, transforms the race into a real competition. One reformist Web site, Asr-e Iran, said Khatami's entrance could "polarize" the campaign and turn it into "an Armageddon between reformists and hard-liners."

Supporters believe the charismatic Khatami can turn around the disillusionment that has dragged down the movement for years. In recent years, many pro-reform voters have stayed away from the polls because of hard-liners' powers to bar their candidates from running.

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