Iran's pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami concluded a groundbreaking visit to Germany on July 12. The trip largely succeeded in producing a thaw in bilateral relations. Ties had languished for several years because of several incidents.
Three months ago, Iran's democratic reformers overwhelmingly swept Parliamentary elections, proclaimed a new era of reform, and basked in the cheers of a triumphant voting public. In last week's opening session of Parliament, they were just happy to take their seats.
Iran's powerful conservatives, still reeling from their overwhelming defeat in last February's Parliament elections, took aim on Sunday at their most powerful and persistent foe: the independent, reformist press.
Conservative clerics are not inclined to stand in the way of Iran's transition to democracy, Olivier Roy, an author and expert on the region, told those attending a Central Eurasia Projects-sponsored meeting.
In the ongoing game of gradual diplomatic détente between the United States and Iran, Washington smacked the ball firmly into Iran's court last Friday with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's announcement of a lifting of U.S sanctions on key Iranian non-oil exports.
The resounding victory for reformist candidates in Iran's recent parliamentary elections may prove to be the turning point in Iran's nascent democracy movement. In any case, the election results deal a damaging, perhaps fatal blow to the country's hard-line clerics who have ruled the country for more than 20 years.
