Hardliners Ease Grip After Iran Election

Two Iranian students convicted of writing a play hard-liners deemed blasphemous have been pardoned by Iran's supreme leader and released from jail, according to a newspaper report.

Mohammad Reza Namnabat and Abbas Ne'mati, who were serving one-year jail sentences, were pardoned by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to mark the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution on Feb. 11, the Entekhab newspaper reported Wednesday, quoting a student news agency.

The report of the two students' pardon comes after President Mohammad Khatami's reformist faction thrashed hard-liners in legislative elections Friday.

Since their defeat, the hard-liners have moved quickly to try to regain some of their lost popularity. Two popular reformists jailed by hard-liners for religious dissent were allowed go home on leave, in what could turn into an eventual pardon.

The Tehran Public Court sentenced Namnabat and Ne'mati in November after convicting them of "blaspheming Islam" in a satirical play, saying it "desecrated" a revered figure of Islam as well as "the Islamic Revolution's sanctities and martyrs."

Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday he hoped the reformers' victory in Iran's elections would lead to a "major change" in its international relations.

"We hope with the international reaction to the large turnout in the election, we will see a major change in Iran's relations with the regional nations and the entire world," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Commenting on U.S. and other Western reaction to the elections, Kharrazi said: "We expect practical steps to be taken by them. No doubt any positive action taken by other countries would receive (a) positive response from Iran."

The United States called the reformers' victory an historic vote for greater openness and freedom, while European states welcomed the outcome and said it could help Iran emerge from its international isolation.

The White House says it's ready for a dialogue with Iran.

But Press Secretary Joe Lockhart cautions the talks would have to be "authorized" by the Iranian government.

And he says it would need to address U.S. concerns as well as Iranian. Those include allegations Iran is supporting terrorists and seeking nuclear arms.

U.S. relations with Iran were broken after the U.S.-backed shah fell in 1979 and backers of Ayatollah Kohomeini seized the U.S. embassy.

Departing hard-line parliament member Kamal Daneshyar was quoted as in a newspaper report Wednesday as saying, "Conservatives have to regroup and reorganize themselves, identify their weak points and re-enter politics with a new plan. People want greater freedom in social and personal issues. The policies enforced so far have failed."

Interior ministry officials say reformers backing President Mohammad Khatami, lead by his youngest brother Mohammad Reza Khatami, had on 29 of the Tehran's 30 seats in parliament.

Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who headed the conservative and centrist tickets and was once the most popular politician in Iran, grabbed the other slot, placing 29th.

Nationwide, the reform movement romped to victory as voters threw out leading conservative incumbents and broke their grip on the assembly.

Members of the younger Khatami's Islamic Iran Participation Front said Tuesday they already had won outright 109 seats in the 290-seat parliament, with allied reformers taking another 28 seats.

Almost 70 races will go to runoffs, expected sometime in April, giving reformers the chance to clinch a majority in the next parliament.