The student groups, which at the time were considered one of the major supporters of Khatami and his reform programs, were protesting in support of Khatami against the closure of the newspaper by the judiciary, which was controlled by the hardline opponents of President Khatami.

He has been strongly criticized by supporters of the Iranian government, for his cartoons depicting Iran's involvement in Iraq, and possible war with the United States, as well as supporters of Iranian Reformists for criticizing former president Khatami and candidates like Mousavi and Karoubi.

Running on a reform agenda, Khatami was elected president on May 23, 1997 in what many have described as a remarkable election.

Khatami presented the so called " twin bills " to the parliament during his term in office, these two pieces of proposed legislation would have introduced small but key changes to the national election laws of Iran and also presented a clear definition of the president's power to prevent constitutional violations by state institutions.

The five ministers since the founding of the ministry, have been Mohammad Reyshahri ( under Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi ), Ali Fallahian ( under President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ), Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi ( under President Mohammad Khatami, resigned after a year ), Ali Younessi ( under President Khatami, until August 24, 2005 ), Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei ( under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from August 24, 2005 to August 24, 2009 ) and Heyder Moslehi ( under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from August 29, 2009 )

After Khatami withdrew from the race in March, Karroubi said " I have neither signed contracts with anyone nor have been promised anything.

Many reformist parties, among them reformist Islamic Iranian Participation Front, whose main candidate was Khatami, have supported his candidacy after the latter withdrew from the race.

Many leading Iranian theologians and politicians ( including Ayatollah Beheshti, Ayatollah Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari or Mohammad Khatami ) have spent time ( often years ) here, have encountered and studied Western sciences and philosophy and contributed to the Western understanding of Shia Islam.

The past two United Nations Secretaries-General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon have both participated in the Forum, as well as Sinn Féin Leader Gerry Adams, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, Nobel Peace Laureate John Hume, President of Israel Shimon Peres, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

As a result of easing cultural restrictions within Iran under president Khatami, a number of Persian pop singers have emerged from within the country.

Before serving as president, Khatami had been a representative in the parliament from 1980 to 1982, supervisor of the Kayhan Institute, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance ( 1982 – 1986 ), and then for a second term from 1989 to May 24, 1992 ( when he resigned ), the head of the National Library of Iran from 1992 to 1997, and a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.

It has been described as the dominant member within the 2nd of Khordad Front, the " main reformist party ", and the party most closely associated with President Khatami.

Before, he had been the Iranian Minister of Labour under Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a parliament representative from Behshahr, and a presidential candidate in two of the presidential elections in Iran ( running against Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, both in their second terms ).

Khatami himself described the " twin bills " as the key to the progress of reforms in Iran.

" Iranian President Mohammad Khatami described Garaudy as " a thinker " and " a believer " who was brought to trial merely for publishing research which was " displeasing to the West.

The 2nd of Khordad Movement is a term that usually refers not only to the coalition of 18 groups and political parties of the reforms front but to anyone else who was a supporter of the 1997 reform programs of Khatami.

During his two terms as president, Khatami advocated freedom of expression, tolerance and civil society, constructive diplomatic relations with other states including those in the Asia and European Union, and an economic policy that supported a free market and foreign investment.

She has secured exclusive interviews with world leaders from the Middle East to Europe to Africa and beyond, including Iranian Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the presidents of Afghanistan, Sudan, and Syria, among others.

Some moderate reformists, however, including President Mohammad Khatami, urged citizens to vote in order to deny the conservative candidates an easy majority.

After the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, Sazegara published several reformist newspapers including Jamee, Toos, and Golestan-e-Iran, all of which were closed by the hard-line regime.

As such, Israeli President Moshe Katsav sat only two seats away from the president of a traditional enemy of Israel, Khatami of Iran.

He is currently one of the leaders of the Iranian Green Movement, and an outspoken critic of the President Ahmadinejad's government. Khatami is known for his proposal of Dialogue Among Civilizations.

On 8 April 2005, the alphabetic ordering of leaders during the funeral of Pope John Paul II resulted in Katsav sitting near Iranian President Mohammad Khatami who, like Katsav, was born in the Iranian city of Yazd.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Hossein-Ali Montazeri and Mohammad Khatami are recognized as leaders of the Green Movement.

Seyed Kamal Kharazi (, born 1 December 1944 ) is an Iranian politician and diplomat who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from August 20, 1997 to August 24, 2005 as appointed by President Mohammad Khatami serving for eight years.

Khatami's father, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, was a high-ranking cleric and the Khateeb ( the one who delivers the sermon for Friday prayers ) in the city of Yazd in the early years of the Iranian Revolution.

As for first task, Jamali attempted to improve relations with country's neighbors by first directing an invitation to President of Iran Mohammad Khatami who visited Pakistan in 2002 after immediately accepting the initiation.

* Ahmad Khatami, Iranian conservative cleric, one of the scribes of the Iranian Assembly of Experts who has no relationship with the former president, Mohammad Khatami

Mousavi refused to run for President in the 1997 elections, which caused the reformists to turn to his former Cabinet Minister, then a little-known cleric, Mohammad Khatami, who was elected by a landslide.

* General Hassan Aryani-Imperial Iranian Air Force, killed in a hang-gliding accident in 1975 ; based on HE General Muhammad Amir Khatami, CVO ( 1920 – 1975 ), Chief of Staff of the Imperial Iranian Air Force who served as Chief Pilot to the Shah and was married to one of his sisters, HIH Fatimeh Pahlavi ( 1928 – 1987 )

Among other great phenomenologists who worked and influenced phenomenology of religion are Kristensen, Henry Corbin, Mahmoud Khatami, Ninian Smart, de la saussaye, Mircea Eliade.

In 1981, Ebtekar became the editor-in-chief of the English daily newspaper Kayhan International, selected by Khatami who was then the representative of Ayatollah Khomeini in Kayhan Institute.

Thus, Khatami had no legal authority over key state institutions: the armed forces, the police, the army, the revolutionary guards, the state radio and television, the prisons, etc.

A high-level delegation, consisting the Iranian cabinet, members of the Parliament, Iranian Vice-President and President Khatami paid a three-day state visit in 2002.

The Iranian state news agency quoted Iranian President Mohammad Khatami as saying that Miresmaeili's actions would be " recorded in the history of Iranian glories ," and that the nation considered him to be " the champion of the 2004 Olympic Games.

He went up to became a vice minister when Mohammad Khatami was the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, but after Khatami resigned from the post, he was downgraded to an assistant librarian.

Under the public opinion pressure, the then Iranian president Mohammad Khatami formed a committee to follow up the case, which eventually asked for the resignation of the Minister of Intelligence, Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi.

After the election of Mohammad Khatami in 1997, more parties started to work, mostly of the reformist movement and opposed by hard-liners.

He is also the former deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, the grandson-in-law of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the younger brother of the fifth Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.

" Even in Qom, the center of theological training in Iran and a conservative stronghold, 70 % of voters cast their ballots for Khatami.

* May 23 – Mohammad Khatami won at 1997 Iranian presidential election and became first Iranian Reformist President.

The concept, which was introduced by former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, was the basis for United Nations ' resolution to name the year 2001 as the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations.

However, in a 2006 interview, the former reformer President Mohammad Khatami said that Iran has also stated its willingness to accept a two-state solution if the Palestinians find this acceptable.

Politicians include the nationalist leader Mohammad Mosaddegh, Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, former Prime Minister Jamshid Amouzegar and the recent reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

Mohammad Khatami: is an Iranian scholar, Shiite theologian, and Reformist politician.

The United Nations proclaimed the year 2001 as the United Nations ' Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, on Khatami's suggestion. Khatami received a B. A.

Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (, ; born September 29, 1943 ) is an Iranian scholar, Shia theologian, and Reformist politician.

Hitherto little known, Khatami attracted global attention during his first election to the presidency when he captured almost 70 % of the vote.

Khatami had run on a platform of liberalization and reform.

Khatami is known for his proposal of Dialogue Among Civilizations.

On February 8, 2009, Khatami announced that he would run in the 2009 presidential election.

In October 2009, the award committee of the Global Dialogue Prize declared Dariush Shayegan and Mohammad Khatami as joint winners of the inaugural award, " for their work in developing and promoting the concept of a ' dialogue among cultures and civilizations ' as new paradigm of cultural subjectivity and as new paradigm of international relations.

In January 2010 Mohammad Khatami stated that " he was not in the position to accept the award ", and the prize was given to Dariush Shayegan alone.

Khatami was born on October 14, 1943, in the small town of Ardakan, in Yazd Province.

Khatami's brother, Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, was elected as Tehran's first member of parliament in the 6th term of Majlis, during which he served as deputy speaker of the parliament.

Khatami's other brother, Ali Khatami, a businessman with a master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Brooklyn, served as the President's Chief of Staff during President Khatami's second term in office, where he kept an unusually low profile.

Khatami's eldest sister, Fatemeh Khatami, was elected as the first representative of the people of Ardakan ( Khatami's hometown ) in 1999 city council elections.