TEHRAN — The battered reformist movement was energized with hopes of a political comeback Monday after its most powerful advocate, Mohammad Khatami, entered the race for president, a matchup one liberal website predicted would be “an Armageddon between reformists and hard-liners.”
Khatami, who was president from 1997 to 2005 and previously expressed reluctance to run again, is seen by many reformists as their white knight, the only candidate with a real chance of beating hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Supporters see the cleric, whose calls for better ties with the West provides a stark contrast to Ahmadinejad’s tough rhetoric, as warming U.S.-Iranian ties.
But Khatami, who announced his candidacy Sunday, faces a tough campaign. Reformists are divided, and the ruling religious establishment backs the current president.
