TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Saturday ordered a delay in President Mohammad Khatami's inauguration following a factional row over the election of new members to a state body.``It is necessary to postpone the inauguration until all legal ambiguities are removed surrounding this important ceremony,'' Khamenei said in a letter to parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi. The letter was read on state television.
The reformist Khatami had been due to take the oath of office for a second term as president on Sunday after his landslide re-election in June. (Read photo caption below)
But his inauguration has been hanging in the balance over the election of two new members to the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated body which oversees legislation.
The reformist-led parliament has approved only one of the three appointees needed to be elected from a shortlist of six candidates put forward by conservative judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi.
The rest have been rejected for being politically biased or legally inexperienced.
In a last-minute move, Hashemi-Shahroudi presented two new names, but both were again rejected in an extraordinary session of parliament on Saturday evening.
The Islamic republic's constitution states the Guardian Council members must be present at the inauguration of the new president.
And conservatives, bitterly opposed to Khatami's liberal reforms, have argued all council members must be present.
PRESSURE TACTIC
But reformers see the argument as a tactic to pressure parliament to endorse the nominees, all of whom are seen to be of conservative leaning.
The reformist parliament has long suffered in the hands of the conservative Guardian Council, which has vetoed the assembly's more progressive rulings, and it sees the elections as an opportunity to regain influence.
The assembly has asked the judiciary chief to appoint more liberal-minded candidates for the three vacant post in the Guardian council, which is made up of six clerics appointed by the supreme leader and six legal experts elected by parliament.
After refusing to bow to pressure from reformist MPs, the judiciary chief finally compromised on Saturday, presenting two new names.
``I have no duty to provide a new list. I do it only to avoid a dispute between parliament and the judiciary and to maintain unity,'' he said.
But the two new candidates received ever fewer votes in parliament than the others.
It was the first time MPs had rejected council nominees since the early years of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran's supreme leader often uses his extraordinary powers to settle factional disputes.
Conservatives on the Guardian Council blocked many of Khatami's reforms during his first four years in office. The hard-line judiciary has banned some 40 reformist newspapers and prosecuted and jailed key allies of the president.
Khatami has promised to use his popular mandate to press on with his efforts to establish a freer, more open Iran.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on August 4, 2001 ordered a delay in President Mohammad Khatami's inauguration following a factional row over the election of new members to a state body. Khatami (R) makes a speech after accepting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's (L) confirmation in Tehran on August 2. (Stringer/Iran/Reuters)