Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami said in a speech on September 13 that there is not much time to remedy the “great harm” Iran has suffered in the past eight years.

The Kaleme website reports that Khatami said: “If we cannot remedy at least some of the major problems in the economy, international relations and internal issues, we may suffer greater harm.”

Once again the former president referred to the house arrest of the opposition leaders and called for the release of political prisoners.

After the controversial election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, the country faced widespread protests challenging the legitimacy of the vote process. Many protesters were killed, thousands were imprisoned and finally, in 2011, the opposing candidates, who insisted there had been vote fraud, were put under house arrest with their wives.

Mohammad Khatami was one of the top supporters of Hassan Rohani’s presidential campaign, and great stock has been put in Rohani’s ability to relieve Iran’s political tensions and alleviate the economic problems as well as the impasse reached in the nuclear talks.
Radio Zamaneh