… Eager for lucrative energy-sector contracts with Iran's state-owned oil industry, Rome, Paris, and Berlin are doing their utmost to help the theocratic regime in Tehran break out of its long isolation.

A few days before Khatami arrived in Rome, the Italian company ENI and the French oil company Elf-Aquitaine signed a $1 billion deal with the National Iranian Oil Co. to develop an Iranian offshore oil field. This European embrace of Iran could pay off handsomely, in both economic and geopolitical terms, but only if two assumptions are proven true.

First, that Khatami will be able to prevail over hard-liners who still exercise control over the Iranian security forces, the army, foreign policy, and the judiciary.

Second, that on issues of foreign and military policy, there is a difference between Khatami and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who recently condemned Yasser Arafat as a ''traitor and lackey of the Zionists.''

If Khamenei or like-minded theocrats are still in power when Iran obtains nuclear weapons and the missiles to launch them at France and Italy as well as Israel and Turkey, then the European gamble will not look so clever. Similarly, if Khatami's reforms end up producing only more elected officials and the freedom to listen to rock 'n' roll, Europols such as Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema will end up looking like duped appeasers.
 
 

Italian MP Protests Khatami's Visit, Refuses To Vote, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 15

On Thursday, March 11, the government of Italy presented a bill to the parliament requesting budget to provide for the expenses of a human rights committee. In the course of debates over this bill, the Hon. Federico Orlando, member of Parliament from Italia dei Valori Party --a member of the ruling coalition-- who supports the Iranian Resistance, protested the clerical regime's president's visit to Italy.

Mr. Orlando said: "Mr. President, I will not participate in the voting." In part of his remarks referring to Khatami's trip, he said: "Taking votes in this case, just in the wake of meetings on this and other side of the Tevere river (i.e. Italy and the Vatican) in search of trade and oil ties with persons who cannot be called messengers of human rights, is inherently contradictory… I believe, voting is an excuse to conceal our tainted conscience. For this reason, I will not vote for this bill."
 
 

Satellite Transmissions of Protest in Italy Jammed, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 15

The clerical regime jammed transmission by two satellite transmitters to prevent live broadcast of the demonstration by more than 5,000 Iranians in protest to Khatami's visit to Italy, on Tuesday, March 9.

The decision to jam Simay-e Moqavemat television program was reached with the approval of Khatami and Khamenei.
 
 

Five Candidates Barred From Tehran Council, Agence France-Presse, March 15

TEHRAN - The election of five candidates to the Tehran municipal council has been annulled, a newspaper said Monday, as Iran's conservatives stepped up the pressure to overturn the victory by the rival faction in last month's elections.

Former interior minister Abdollah Nuri and four other backers of Mohammad Khatami will not to be allowed to take their seats on the council by orders of the conservative-dominated Supervision Board, the pro-government newspaper Sobh-e-Emrouz said.

Conservative efforts to overturn the election results began in earnest last week when influential MP Ahmad Rasoolinejad called for the impeachment of Interior Minister Abdol-Vahed Mussavi-Lari over his ministry's handling of the elections.

Mussavi-Lari had earlier raised the ire of conservatives by saying that the new municipal officials elected across the country will provide "strong support" for Khatami's government.
 
 

Iran's Press Digest, Reuters, March 15

These are some of the leading stories in Iranian newspapers on Monday.

QODS - The Judiciary ruled there would be a 10 percent increase in blood money in the Iranian new year beginning on March 21, paid in accordance with Islamic law, to injured persons or families of a murdered person by an offender.

HAMSHAHRI - Iran's textile product exports fell 60 percent in the 9-month period beginning last March 21, according to a textile industry official.

ABRAR-E EQTESADI - A forestry expert blamed the state forests organization for the gradual destruction of Iran's forests. Ebrahim Adeli said an annual 3 to 4 million cubic meters of wood are harvested from the forests, far in excess of their ability to regenerate.

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