NCRI – Mohammad Khatami, former president of the clerical regime in Iran, believes that he would be blocked from standing again in this June’s election despite his loyalty to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Khatami – president from 1997 to 2005 – told a meeting of Revolutionary Guards veterans on April 20: “All the indications are that they will not allow me to be a candidate for the presidency.”
He stressed his obedience to Khamenei, adding :”The Constitution has a principle called velayat-e-faqih (absolute rule of the Supreme leader] to which we are loyal.
“Functioning within framework of the regime and the supreme leader is one of my working principles.”
Khatami was widely presented as a moderate president by allies of the Iranian regime, but opponents describe him as a ‘fake moderate’ who ordered the suppression of student uprising in 1999.
Khatami also spoke on Saturday of the current crises in Iran which he said were ‘shaking the economic foundations of the country’.
He added: “If the currently prevailing security atmosphere does not change it will be impossible to do anything.”
Even if he were elected president, the current dire situation in Iran would continue, he said.
