Archie's Corner

[jmhollen]

O/T: "..Muttering Mullahs.." are losing their grip ( aka: the Bush plan is working )!!!

Iranian leaders threaten to quit as crisis worsens

Top officials, including vice-presidents and Cabinet ministers, will resign if the hardliners do not overturn their ban

TEHERAN - The political stand-off in Iran worsened yesterday with 12 top officials including vice-presidents and Cabinet members threatening to resign in protest at the hardline Guardians' Council's move to ban hundreds of reformists from running for parliament.

Reformist MPs said the list of those who had already drafted resignation letters included four of Iran's six vice-presidents and six Cabinet ministers.

'They have their resignation letters ready and will submit them' if the Guardians' Council does not back down, said one of the MPs.

Mr Mohammad Sattarifar, Iran's vice-president for management and planning, said earlier that the Cabinet was prepared to dissolve if it could not guarantee a fair election process, state-run media reported.

'If the government becomes impotent in securing the legitimate freedoms of the nation, it loses its legitimacy, and then, whether it dissolves itself or not, it is automatically dissolved,' Irna quoted him as saying.

The resignation threats raised the stakes of a political struggle which erupted on Sunday, when the hardline Guardians' Council announced that around half of the 8,200 aspiring candidates for the Feb 20 parliamentary vote had been disqualified.

It may also increase pressure on reformist President Mohammad Khatami to step down in solidarity with his colleagues, analysts said.

Until now, he has tended to avoid confrontation with hardliners who have blocked his reform attempts.

A newspaper reported Mr Khatami had threatened to quit, but that news was denied by sources and liberal MPs.

The liberal Etemad newspaper said Mr Khatami had sent a message to reformist MPs saying: 'I will wait for one week so that things go back to normal. Otherwise, if elections cannot be held, I will step down from my position.'

The Guardians' Council has also barred about 80 members of the current 290-member parliament from running for re-election.

Its action has underlined the relative impotence of the reformist government and its allies in the Islamic Republic.

Unelected hardliners also control the judiciary, armed forces and state media.

All of Iran's 27 provincial governors have also threatened to quit if the Guardians' Council does not back down.

Disgruntled reformist MPs kept up their sit-in at the Iranian parliament, or Majlis, for the third day and said they were willing to stay put for weeks. -- Reuters, AFP, AP

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,229961,00.html