STAND: Reformers in Iran's parliament hand in their resignations
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 that climaxed with the resignation of 130 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 parroted "the enemies of this nation," he sternly refused to reverse the disqualifications or...
