Khatami may pull out of Iranian election race

FORMER Iranian president Mohammed Khatami said he may pull out of June’s presidential race to avoid splitting the vote if another reformist candidate can pose a stronger challenge to the country’s hard-line establishment.

Khatami told supporters late on Sunday he believed another influential reformist candidate, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, has a better chance of overcoming resistance from Iran’s ruling clerics.

Iran’s reformers see a strong opportunity to unseat hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking his second term but has lost popularity over his handling of the country’s faltering economy and other issues.

Khatami, a liberal cleric who was president in 1997-2005, has said in the past that he and Mousavi will not compete against each other.

The candidacy of Mousavi, announced last week, could pose a serious challenge to Ahmadinejad.

Khatami is the best known internationally among Iran’s reformists, who favour improving ties with the West and loosening restrictions at home, and is also popular at home. But hard-liners strongly dislike him.

Mousavi, meanwhile, is remembered well by many Iranians for managing the country during the 1980-88 war with Iraq, and his revolutionary credentials also could help siphon votes away from Ahmadinejad’s base in the June 12 elections.

“Rest assured that Mousavi will recruit a remarkable percentage of votes from the other side.

“I have reports that some conservatives will not vote for me and this guy (Ahmadinejad), but they would definitely vote for Mousavi,” Khatami told supporters. He said that he and Mousavi share about 20% to 30% of the reformist vote.

Meanwhile, US jets shot down an Iranian unmanned surveillance aircraft last month over Iraqi territory about 100km northeast of Baghdad, the US military said yesterday.

A US statement said the Ababil 3 was tracked for more than an hour before US jets shot it down “well-inside Iraqi airspace”. The statement said the aircraft’s presence over Iraqi airspace “was not an accident”.

An Iraqi official said the Iranian aircraft went down near the Iraqi border town of Mandali.

The US has frequently accused the Iranians of supplying weapons, training and money to Shi’ite extremist groups opposed to the US military presence and to the US-backed Iraqi government.