A veteran radical-turned-moderate, Mr Mehdi Karroubi, was elected yesterday to the influential post of speaker of Iran's first reformist-dominated parliament. Mr Karroubi (63), a middle-ranking cleric and secretary general of the liberal Association of Militant Clerics and a former associate of Ayatollah Khomeini, became the sole candidate when the largest faction, the Islamic Participation Front, which is allied to the President, Mr Muhammad Khatami, did not field its own candidate for the post.
Mr Karroubi is seen as being acceptable to the conservative grouping and the Guardian Council which validates legislation. He is also acceptable to the reformist coalition.
The speaker of parliament is ranked number three in the Iranian political hierarchy. The rightwing Tehran Times, anticipating his election, praised him as one of the "heavyweight followers" of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
Mr Karroubi, voted in by 186 of the 251 seated deputies, served three previous terms as a member of the majlis and was speaker from 1989-92 when Islamist radicals had a majority. He later headed the wealthy, prestigious and powerful Martyrs' Association, a charitable institution. But he came in for criticism when victims of Iran's conflicts did not receive the treatment their families demanded in the association's centres.
In the 1980s Mr Karroubi chaired the liaison committee between Tehran and the Lebanese Hizbullah movement. Since Iran shares Hizbullah's triumph over the liberation of south Lebanon, Iranian clerics connected to the movement enjoy considerable popular credibility.
Mr Karroubi's credentials are, therefore, credible if not impeccable, as far as both reformists and conservatives are concerned. He replaces Mr Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, a close associate of the Spiritual Guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. An arch conservative, Mr Nouri was dramatically defeated in the 1997 presidential poll by the liberal incumbent, Mr Khatami.
An ally of Mr Karroubi, Mr Majid Ansari, and a labour leader, Mr Abolqassem Sarhadizadeh, were chosen as first and second deputy speakers, clearly demonstrating that for the time being the victorious reformists do not intend to adopt a confrontational approach to the defeated conservatives.
Mr Karroubi said the reformist victory in the parliamentary polls reconfirmed the election of the liberal President, Mr Khatami, and called upon deputies from the reform and conservative tendencies to "co-operate" and "avoid tension".
Mr Karroubi is expected to promote conciliation and compromise between the reform and conservative camps in order to maintain clerical unity.
