Mahmoud ahmadinejad, Iran's president, faces a disgruntled people, an election in June, and now a strong new challenger for his job. This week Muhammad Khatami, a jovial, 65-year-old reformist cleric, who is more softly spoken and gentler-looking than the incumbent, finally decided to throw his turban into the ring. He previously served two terms as president, from 1997 to 2005.rnAt the time, Mr Khatami's double electoral triumph was seen as a rebuke to the harder ideologues who had dominated revolutionary Iran's hybrid theo-democra-cy. His fractious reformists, however, proved no match for the conservatives entrenched in the power structure. Not only did they block most reforms. They also succeeded in pinning blame for their failure on the reformists themselves and in alienating enough voters to pave the way for Mr Ahmadinejad's ascent.
展开▼
