Iran's Khatami considers running for presidency

Iran's reformist former president Mohammad Khatami has revealed he is considering running for the post again next year but cautioned against too high expectations, newspapers reported on Sunday.

A number of reformist parties and prominent figures have been urging Khatami to stand in the June 12 election but he said he has two conditions.

"My first condition is reaching an agreement with the people on their expectations. The Iranian people have a historical and heartfelt desire for freedom, progress and justice," he was quoted as saying in the reformist newspaper Kargozaran.

Khatami, 66, added that he would pursue the Iranian people's desires, "compatible with religion and divine values," but did not elaborate.

"I will present my programs to the people in the future," said Khatami, who served two terms as president from 1997 until 2005 when he was succeeded by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I need to see to what extent these programs can be implemented within the existing power structures," he said.

Khatami, a mid-ranking cleric with the title of hojatoleslam, insisted during his terms that he wanted to introduce reforms in the Islamic republic by promoting more political and social freedoms.

Although newspapers and the media flourished during his mandates, many of them were shut by the hard-line judiciary.

Also Iran's relations with the West were less confrontational under Khatami and foreign investment expanded during his terms.

But critics say Khatami was not firm enough against hard-line establishments in the Islamic republic, leading to disappointment among his mostly youthful supporters.

In the past three years Khatami has been running an NGO called Baran (rain) but he has not taken on any official post.

Baran's target, according to their website, is "to promote cultural, social and economic levels ... of the Iranians and also to expand legal freedoms, social justices."

He has also been travelling outside Iran promoting his pet project of "dialogue among civilizations." In September 2006, he was invited to make speeches in the United States, Tehran's arch foe.

Elected to a four-year term in June 2005 after defeating powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad can stand for a second consecutive term under Iran's constitution.

Khatami has repeatedly criticized both Ahmadinejad's economic policy and his "aggressive" foreign policy which the former president dubbed "the best gift to strengthening Israel."