Mohammad Atriyanfar is a member of the central council of the Kargozaran Sazandeghi ‎party, a reformist group close to the chairman of the powerful State Expediency council ‎Hashemi Rafsanjani. Atriyanfar recently talked with former president Khatami and ‎Abdollah Nouri, a prominent reformist, about the upcoming presidential elections in Iran. ‎We talked with him about his views on the elections. Read on for more.‎

Rooz (R): Do you think that a coalition will be created by reformist candidates around a ‎single presidential nominee next year?‎

Mohammad Atriyanfar (MA): In the preliminary discussions, the leading reformist ‎groups have implicitly said that Mr. Khatami is the most qualified person for the job. Due ‎to his eight years of experience as president , and the mistakes and tests that have taken ‎place, he remains the leading candidate for the position. If he announces his candidacy, ‎election committees will immediately spring up across the country to support him and ‎provide the means for this.‎

R: What if he decides not to run?‎

MA: The issue of what is the next step and what needs to be done if Mr. Khatami ‎removes himself from the race, brings up different approaches from the Kargozaran ‎group and the others. So long as Mr. Khatami remains a viable possibility, all reformers, ‎except Etemad Melli group which has chosen Mr. Karubi as its presidential candidate, ‎agree on him. And so long as Mr. Khatami remains a possibility, Kargozaran is not ‎deliberating any other candidate. ‎

R: Has the idea of not participating in the elections if Mr. Khatami does not run been ‎discussed at Kargozaran?‎

MA: Kargozaran believes that the reformist movement and ideals represent more than 50 ‎percent of the country’s population. The country too expects reformists not to vacate the ‎political scene. Kargozaran too does not believe in vacating the scene if Mr. Khatami is ‎not in the picture. We think that if that happens, the situation and conditions must be ‎assessed and a constructive solution agreed on.‎

R: Have any talks about Mr. Abdollah Nouri as a presidential candidate been held at the ‎Kargozaran?‎

MA: We are fully aware of his outstanding political qualifications. But Mr. Nouri himself ‎has not shown a lot of interest in participating as a candidate in the elections. He assesses ‎the situation from his own perspective. If he comes forward to view himself as a real ‎viable presidential candidate, similar to the situation with Mr. Khatami, then he may well ‎be a serious potential candidate.‎

R: In many political circles it is said that Mr. Khatami is not keen enough to be a ‎presidential candidate. This has even been said by Mr. Rafsanjani and other groups. Do ‎you think that Mr. Khatami will run for the office of the president next year?‎

MA: Mr. Khatami faces two environments. In one he faces the expectations that the ‎leading politicians and personalities such as Mr. Rafsanjani, Mr. Khoeniha, and Abdollah ‎Nouri have from him. The reformist parties too have similar expectations. We also ‎believe that there are wise individuals in the ideologue camp (in Iran they are also known ‎as the Principalists) who are seriously concerned about the state of affairs of the country ‎and have moderate views inside that camp, support the candidacy of Mr. Khatami. More ‎than that, there are many people in this country who want issues to be dealt with through ‎rational and professional channels, something that existed and did take place during the ‎reform administration. On the other hand, the problems of the country, an example of ‎which is the unfulfilled promises that have been made to the public, inflation, relations ‎with other countries of the world, etc, are things that make him hesitant in coming ‎forward and announcing his intent to run for the presidency.‎