The Washington Post – Iranian security forces prevented former president and opposition figure Mohammad Khatami from leaving his Tehran home late Wednesday, local media reported. It was the latest sign that regime hard-liners were seeking to crack down on the country’s reformists, activists said.
Two opposition-linked news sites said security forces arrived at Khatami’s home in the Iranian capital to block him from meeting with political allies, a move that one outlet referred to as “temporary house arrest.”
Khatami, a widely popular, pro-reform cleric, served two terms as president, from 1997 to 2005, but was later banned from public appearances after supporting anti-government protests in 2009. An order from a state prosecutor this month tightened those restrictions, according to one of Khatami’s lawyers, imposing measures including a three-month ban on receiving political guests.
The government did not publicly confirm the restrictions. But the incident Wednesday is being cast as part of a broader conflict between pro-reform figures, who have allied with President Hassan Rouhani, and hard-liners in the security forces and judiciary. Those rivalries are likely to be aggravated as tensions rise between Iran and the Trump administration, which has vowed a more aggressive U.S. policy toward Iran, and as Iranian political factions jockey for power.
On one side are the moderates and reformists, who have pushed for gradual change in the system, including greater political freedoms and more dialogue with the West. On the other side are the hard-line security forces and conservative clerics, who have balked at diplomacy and suppressed dissent.
