国际英语新闻：Abtahi: Iran's reformists to launch strong challenge to incumbent president

TEHRAN, May 27 (Xinhua) -- As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made mistakes in its foreign and economic policies, the reformists will launch a strong challenge to the incumbent hard-liner in the upcoming presidential election, former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said.

    "The policies of Mr. Ahmadinejad have hampered and impeded Iran, both in foreign affairs and economy," Abtahi, who was vice president from 2001 to 2004 in former reformist President Mohammad Khatami's administration, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

    "We think the people have understood these well and because of these wrong policies, they want to call for a change by the election," said Abtahi, who is now chairman of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue.

    During Ahmadinejad's presidency since August 2005, Iran continues to speed up its nuclear program and refuses to end uranium enrichment despite UN Security Council resolutions calling for it to do so.

    The Iranian President also maintains a hard line towards the United States and Israel. Both countries have so far not ruled out military actions against the Islamic Republic.

    On the economic front, Ahmadinejad has dramatically increased government spending and has supported subsidies for lower-income families. But as Iran is suffering from soaring inflation and high unemployment, his track record in the economic field has been a frequent target of criticism.

    The two reformist candidates -- former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi -- have vowed to bring more freedom to the Iranian society, improve its economy and pursue better relationship between Iran and the world.

    As a pro-reformist observer and an adviser to Karroubi, Abtahi said basically the two reformist candidates do not have significant differences in their policies while the former parliament speaker might be "braver."

    "I believe Mr. Karroubi has much bravery and faith in reforms...(and) can do better in foreign policy," Abtahi said. "While Mr. Mousavi seems to be a little stricter in foreign policy."

    He also said that the two reformist candidates competing together in the June 12 presidential election would not undermine the reformist camp, and instead would help to prevent a landslide victory of Ahmadinejad.

    "Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi each can attract different groups of supporters to the ballot boxes. Therefore, the more people participate in the voting, the less likely Mr. Ahmadinejad would win in the first round by a majority," Abtahi said.

    The Iranian president is elected with an absolute majority of the votes. But if none of the candidates is able to win over 50 percent of the votes in the first round, voting will be held for a second time.

    In the second round, only the two candidates who receive largest number of votes in the first round will participate. The president is elected for a four-year term and may not serve for more than two consecutive terms.

    For the conservative camp, in order to ensure no severe split of the votes would happen, no more heavyweight candidates have come out this time to challenge the incumbent conservative president, Abtahi said.

    "I think the conservative camp will mostly support Ahmadinejad in order to prevent the reformists from gaining the upper hand," even though some conservatives are not so satisfied with his performance, Abtahi said.

    Observers mostly believe that former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei, a moderate conservative, is not a serious challenger to Ahmadinejad, who enjoys many administrative and publicity resources as the incumbent president.

    Abtahi said that whoever wins the election, the relations between Iran and the United States will be a major issue for him and U.S. President Barack Obama can be both an opportunity and a "danger" for Iran.

    Since he took office in January, Obama has made several overtures to Iran, calling for a "new beginning" of engagement with the Islamic Republic.

    Abtahi noted that Obama's overtures could mean a "great opportunity" for Iran and at the same time, his popularity in the United States and around the world could be "dangerous" for Iran.

    "Mr. Obama is accepted and welcomed by the world...and can be even more dangerous by more easily gaining a consensus" against Iran, Abtahi said.

    Tehran and Washington broke up diplomatic ties in 1980 following Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and the succedent hostage incident of U.S. embassy in Tehran.

    Relations between the two long foes deteriorated during former U.S. President George W. Bush's term in part due to Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

    The United States and some of its allies accused Iran of using a civilian cover to develop atomic weapons, but Iran denied all the accusations, saying its nuclear plan was just for peaceful purposes.