Rooz spoke with Reza Alijani, a known national-religious activist, on the forthcoming ‎presidential elections and Khatami’s record. Read on for the conversation.‎

Rooz (R): Some individuals seriously question former President Mohammad Khatami’s ‎record. Do you think it is right to attribute the problems of the reforms to him and do you ‎think this attitude will advance the movement and popular engagements?‎

Reza Alijani (RA): I would like to say at the outset that I do not believe in Mr. Khatami’s ‎decline, but I do believe in critiquing his record. I think an exaggeration is taking place ‎about the elections and the role of the president in the Islamic Republic. One cannot ‎claim that even a fifth of power in the state rests with the president. So when we speak of ‎the president our expectations from him must be objectively proportionate to his position ‎and legal authority. Unfortunately, whenever we get close to an election in Iran, forces ‎supporting a candidate begin to exaggerate the role of the president.‎

R: How do critical political forces look at the elections?‎

RA: Among the political forces, some believe in participating while others believe in not. ‎It appears that both groups are now more realistic compared to the last elections. In other ‎words the groups that during the last elections believed in boycotting the elections, now ‎have concluded that you cannot do that right from the beginning. A large part of this ‎group believes that they must at least get engaged in the elections. On the other side, ‎those who have been participating in elections in the last decade now engage in critiquing ‎the forces which they voted into the government.‎

R: What do you think is necessary for a better performance for the forces that entered the ‎government through the elections?‎

RA: The better candidate should explain its plan and team. For example, it should explain ‎that if comes to power it would carry out a specific group of its promises. The promises ‎must be measureable, and not generalities because otherwise these will neither make ‎breakthroughs not will they be critique-able. So they will not result in progress. It is clear ‎that during the previous presidency, the state of the country was much better, particularly ‎in the spheres of individual freedoms, human rights, national interest, foreign policy, etc. ‎On the other hand one cannot make decisions simply by comparing Mr. Khatami’s ‎administration with the current one. I think it is important to understand what exactly ‎took place that we moved from Khatami’s administration to Ahmadinejad’s.‎

R: Have Iranian political parties currently presented such plans?‎

RA: Except for one party which has presented its minimum program, the other candidates ‎have till today not presented any program. I do not know what Mr. Khatami or Mr. ‎Karubi’s views on the nuclear issue and uranium enrichment are, while these are among ‎the most serious issues which impact all others such as those in the social, political, ‎cultural and economic spheres. For example when Obama says unclench your fists, are ‎we willing to talk to him and what is the response of our candidates to this message?‎

R: Which candidates do you think posses a greater potential to win the votes?‎

RA: Among the current candidates, Mr. Khatami is the most winnable nominee. From the ‎mental dialogue perspective I see him the closest to my views (this is of course if we do ‎not consider Abdollah Nouri because he will most likely not have the opportunity to get ‎into the race).‎