Mohammed Reza Khatami; Iran's Other Khatami.(Interview)

Byline: Babak Dehghanpisheh

It would have been easy for Mohammed Reza Khatami, 44, to let his brother Mohammed Khatami, the Iranian president, overshadow him. Instead, for the last four years he has led the nation's largest reform party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, and served as a deputy speaker of Parliament. The younger Khatami, a trained kidney specialist, started his revolutionary career like many other notable figures of his generation: by joining the takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Now the tables have turned. Khatami was among hundreds of candidates disqualified by hard-liners in the run-up to parliamentary elections last week. His political future, and that of the reform movement, is now in question. He spoke last week to NEWSWEEK's Babak Dehghanpisheh. Excerpts:

DEHGHANPISHEH: What lies ahead for reformist political parties?

KHATAMI: They can arrest us, close our papers and even apply pressure to get us fired from our jobs. But our party will definitely survive, even if we have to organize ourselves in smaller groups.

Does this mean you will be transformed into an internal opposition group?

There is no problem with that. But labels can be misleading in Iran. Opposition often means enemy. Yes, we are opposed to many of the policies adopted by the judiciary, by the Guardian Council and other appointed bodies of the government. So yes, in that sense, we are an opposition group, but one that likes to operate within the framework of the law. We don't want to overthrow the regime.

Are you worried you may be arrested?