Posted on 01/31/2004 7:56:13 PM PST by areafiftyone
Iran's president Mohammad Khatami has reportedly fallen ill with back pain, forcing him to cancel his engagements.
It comes amid a worsening political crisis over the barring of thousands of candidates from February's elections.
Mr Khatami is said to have fallen ill after a ceremony at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini - to mark the 25th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
He has been forced to postpone a key meeting of his reformist cabinet to discuss the ban on 2,500 candidates.
On Friday, the hardline Guardian Council reinstated a third of the 3,600 candidates it disqualified from the election.
The official number of candidates now stands at around 5,450.
But it falls far short of the full reinstatement demanded by protesting reformist MPs, 80 of whom are themselves on the blacklist.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari warned it would be "out of the question" to hold elections. "The possibility of organising a free and competitive election does not exist", he said.
Anniversary
The political row continued as Iran prepared to commemorating the 1979 revolution that toppled the pro-US leadership and brought to power anti-American hardline clerics.
According to reports, the president fell ill shortly after he attended a ceremony, along with his entire cabinet, at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini, father of the revolution.
The BBC's Miranda Eeles said sources close to the 60-year-old president blamed stress and pressure on his nerves for the illness.
The disqualifications by the Guardian Council - an unelected 12-member body that vets candidates for office and all laws - have drawn daily protests from the reformists.
MPs began circulating and signing letters of resignation on Saturday, the AFP news agency reported.
I don't suppose the ruling mullahs will see it that way. But what the hell. It works for me.
Just after calling in sick he was heard to utter "et tu, Brute!?"
On Friday, the hardline Guardian Council reinstated a third of the 3,600 candidates it disqualified from the election... but it falls far short of the full reinstatement demanded by protesting reformist MPs, 80 of whom are themselves on the blacklist.As the marching students chanted, "the mullahs must be killed."
According to the latest list of the approved candidates, the number of reformist deputies disqualified increased to 87 instead of the original 80 barred by the Council of the Guardians, humiliating further more the reformist camp. -- Abandoned By Khatami, Reformists Have Lost The Electoral Battle
HA!HA!...I've never heard of that term, "Kremlin Flu". :))
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