The high hopes for democratic change in Iran seem to be dead, at least for now. Iran's leading reformist party announced last week that it would boycott the Feb. 20 elections to choose a new parliament, charging that a panel dominated by hard-line mullahs had effectively rigged the outcome by disqualifying some 2,000 potential candidates, most of them reformists. The move capped a month-long drama marked by the resignation of 87 reformist parliament members in protest. After attempting to mediate a compromise, Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei came down firmly on the side of the conservatives. Calling reformists "ignorant people" who...
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