Iran hardliners criticize Khatami's "insulting" speech

TEHRAN-Iranian hardliners have criticized moderate former President Mohammad Khatami for a speech they deemed insulting to Iran's late revolutionary leader, newspapers reported on Wednesday.Etemad-e Melli newspaper said 77 lawmakers would ask Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei "to confront" Khatami over the remarks they say insulted the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.A hardline daily said Khatami was being unpatriotic.The row reflects a political divide between those in Iran, like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, seeking a return to hardline policies of the early revolutionary days, and pro-reform figures, like Khatami, who seek political and social change.In a speech on Friday, Khatami questioned the meaning of "exporting the revolution", a phrase coined when Khomeini led the country as supreme leader.Khomeini, who died in 1989, remains a figure much revered by all political factions.Nearby Arab states in the Gulf and others took fright at the phrase at the time, seeing it as a bid by Iran to stir up revolt in their countries. Khatami's presidency was characterized by attempts to improve Iran's relations with Arabs and the West.
"What did Imam Khomeini mean by exporting the revolution?"Khatami asked in his speech, newspapers reported."Did Imam Khomeini mean that we take up arms, that we blow up places in other nations and we create groups to carry out sabotage in other countries?He was vehemently against such measures and was confronting it," Khatami said. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0779936120080507
As in the days of Noah....