DUBAI - President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, elected on a tide of desire for change after nearly two decades of Islamic revolution, has failed to deliver on reform in his first 100 days in office, diplomats and analysts said on Sunday...

The average Iranian detects no major changes, according to Bijan Khajehpour, an economist and analyst who says most people in Iran are mainly preoccupied with making ends meet.

"As a result, talk has started that Khatami represents nothing but empty promises, and more and more people are reminded of the hope they had when Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani took over the presidency in 1989," Khajehpour told Reuters.

Analysts said conservatives appeared to have gone on the offensive against Khatami after recovering from the shock of their defeat in May when he won nearly 70 percent of all votes.

"The trials of Tehran city officials by the conservative-run judiciary have weakened Khatami and the radio and television have also been clearly slanted," an Iranian analyst said.

Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a major force for reform who actively campaigned for Khatami, has said the trials -- in which some of his aides have been convicted of morals, drugs and corruption charges -- were politically motivated.

Conservatives in parliament have been actively questioning a number of decisions by the Khatami administration, including the nomination of moderate provincial governors. Khatami backers said this was part of a plan to further weaken the president.

U.S. Warns Five Companies of Sanctions Over Iran, Reuter, November 7 

ROME - The United States Friday warned five non-U.S. companies that they were running the risk of real sanctions if investigations found any of their business dealings with Iran contravened U.S. law.

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Trade Stuart Eizenstat said the action was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring technology Tehran could use to build long-range or medium-range missiles, especially chemical and biological warheads.

Speaking at the end of a transatlantic business conference in Rome, Eizenstat emphasized that no evidence of such business dealings by the five companies had yet been found, but if they were, sanctions were a "real option."

Overview

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran has given his toughest anti-American speech in years, vehemently condemning rapprochement with the United States in an attempt to halt the growing policy debate on the issue within the new Iranian government.

Khamenei, in a speech Wednesday to Iranian students, declared that the nation's "destiny" now depends on resisting recent suggestions that Iran change its long-standing policy toward the United States. He specifically ruled out compromise on three critical issues that Washington views as essential to reconciliation: Iranian opposition to Middle East peace, its support of groups viewed in the West as extremist and its programs that the U.S. fears are developing weapons of mass destruction.

In the United States, the remarks drew a mixture of alarm and disappointment from government officials and private analysts who had seen reason for hope in the upset election six months ago of President Mohammad Khatami, a reform-minded former culture minister, over a ranking hard-liner backed by Khamenei...

After reading a translation of Khamenei's speech, a senior U.S. official noted Thursday that the angry language was just the kind of talk Washington hoped had ended. "It's not conducive to a change in the diplomatic environment," he said. "Quite the contrary."

But experts contended that Khamenei's intended audience is Iran's new government as much as the United States. Khamenei lashed out at "rumormongers" and "U.S. agents" who are now saying that, if the country "were to resume ties or even start talks with the United States, all our problems would disappear." He called those suggestions nonsense.

Khamenei also cited Koranic verses to urge students to "resist U.S. oppression," a throwback to tactics and terms used in the years immediately after the 1979 revolution. "The destiny of future generations depends on this issue," Khamenei said.

The speech was the sharpest element of what is developing into an internal struggle to define Iran's future course.

In another speech this week marking the 18th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, parliamentary Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri warned against "liberals" and against expecting Iran to make compromises toward the West. Nateq-Nuri, a Khamenei ally, is the candidate who lost the presidential race to Khatami in May...

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