Refusing "to Choose the Bad in Order to Avoid the Worse," The New York Times, May 23 

TEHERAN, Iran - … This was not at all what the mullahs had in mind two weeks ago, when they announced which four of 238 applicants they would allow to run for president. They assumed their favored candidate, Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri, the speaker of Parliament, would win easily over three bland rivals whose principal role was to provide a semblance of competition….

If Khatami [Nategh-Nouri's competition] wins the election, he is not expected to change Iran's posture toward the West. The president's powers are limited in Iranian society, with most of the power in the hands of religious leaders, and even though Khatami has emerged as a voice for change, he is by no means a dissident or even a member of the political opposition.

No matter who wins, ultimate power in Iran will remain in the hands of shadowy councils of clergymen and especially with Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei the country's supreme leader."

Under the Revolutionary Constitution, Khamenei, who is not subject to election, is viewed as reflecting the will of God, while the president reflects merely the will of the people.

At a news conference last week, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati gave a graphic example of the limits on presidential power here. Asked whether a new president might make conciliatory gestures toward the West, he replied that neither the president nor the foreign minister could take any such initiative without the ayatollah's approval, something which he suggested was highly unlikely.

Nor is Khatami a true opposition figure. In order to be accepted as a candidate he had to swear loyalty to the principles of the Islamic Revolution, which he served for 10 years as a cabinet minister.

"I am not going to vote at all, because I refuse to choose the bad in order to avoid the worse," said a university professor who considers himself a dissident. "I can't buy the idea that Khatami is the Iranian Gorbachev, as some journalists are saying."…

"People doubt that the real result will be respected," said a jeweler in the sprawling Teheran bazaar who asked not to be identified by name….

Such views have been so widely expressed that Khamenei, who has strongly suggested that he favors Nategh-Nouri's candidacy, felt compelled to vow publicly that the vote count would be fair….

 

On the Eve of Elections, Clerics Worried about Unrest, Reuter, May 22 

TEHRAN - Iranians prepared to vote for a new president as authorities promised voters that Friday's election would be fair despite rumors of possible vote-rigging….

Security forces patrolled key installations in the capital and police moved many of the campaigners on. Some major thoroughfares and intersections were littered with election debris.

The Interior Ministry said 200,000 police were mobilized to provide security for 33,400 voting places which would be set up in mosques, schools and clinics….

Some 280 people were arrested in Tehran up to Sunday for unspecified election violations.

No further arrests have been announced, but Khatami's election headquarters was shut down on Wednesday for alleged violations of election laws.

 

US to Punish Chinese Companies For Sending Chemical Weapons to Iran, Associated Press, May 22

WASHINGTON - In a sign of new resolve, the Clinton administration is punishing two Chinese companies and a third in Hong Kong suspected of providing Iran with chemical weapons technology….

"We have to do everything we can, but it is hard," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a Senate Appropriations sub-committee Thursday, referring to the difficulty in keeping track of trade in modern technology with rogue regimes….

Even so, Sen. Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah, said Thursday, the Navy has intelligence information showing China was arming Iran with land-based C-802 missiles that could attack American vessels in the Persian Gulf region….

 

The Largest Chemical Weapons Program in the Developing World, Reuter, May 22

WASHINGTON - The United States toughened its position on China on Thursday, imposing new sanctions on Chinese companies for transferring chemical weapons components to Iran….

"We think that Iran's chemical weapons program is the largest in the developing world (and that) Iran continues to expand its chemical weapons program despite the fact that it signed the Chemical Weapons Convention" banning the production, stockpiling and use of such weapons, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told a news briefing….

 

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