Moderate Takes Charge in Iran, Talks of Peace

Iran’s new president took office Sunday with a message of peace to the world, but said his country opposes the “highhandedness of certain big countries,” a reference to the United States.

Mohammad Khatami, a moderate Muslim cleric who won by a landslide in May 23 elections, was certified as the Islamic Republic’s fifth president.

Hundreds of ministers and senior officials watched, sitting cross-legged on a carpeted floor at a religious center named for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late revolutionary patriarch. Foreign ambassadors also attended.

In his short speech, the 54-year-old Khatami said Iran wants peaceful coexistence with the world.

“Internationally, we seek peace and security, and the message of our revolution is the message of spirituality, peace and security,” he said. “But because we want this for all of humanity, we oppose the highhandedness of certain big countries.”

Iran would “shake the hand of any nation that does not threaten our independence,” he said.

Khatami faces formidable challenges both from hard-liners who oppose his ideas for easing Iran’s strict Islamic social code and from an anemic economy in which inflation and unemployment both top 20%.

While Khatami was elected for his moderate views, Sunday’s ceremony also was a reminder that he is part of Iran’s clerical tradition. Khatami, outgoing President Hashemi Rafsanjani and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all wore the turbans and flowing robes of Shiite Muslim clerics.

Khatami will be sworn in officially today in the parliament. He is widely expected to be the first president to appoint women to his Cabinet.