The Pentagon's pronouncement that it would seek to "destabilize" Iran's Islamic republic has given the country's clerics ammunition to portray their liberal opponents as traitors. Hardly a day passes without warnings in the official press against reformists accused of sowing divisions.
"America is trying to undermine our national unity by provoking chaos and political differences as well as creating a crisis," said Mohammed Baqer Zolqadr, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards.
Washington's rhetoric could not have come at a more awkward time for President Mohammed Khatami and his allies in parliament. As the political and constitutional battle between reformists and Islamists comes to a head, the US intervention is a distraction and a pretext for muffling dissent.
Reformist members of parliament (MPs), who form a parliamentary majority, are threatening to resign en masse after repeated obstruction by conservatives on the guardian council, an unelected body but possessing a constitutional veto over legislative change.
The final straw came last month when the council rejected two bills proposed by Khatami that would have ended clerical authority over the judiciary and the electoral process.
Conservatives portray the threat to resign as naive and dangerous, damaging Iran's national security at a time when the US military encircles Iran. The state prosecutor warned MPs that they might face legal action if their resignations threatened "national interests."
If the MPs do stay, they will enter February's elections with nothing to show for their promises of change. If they step down, the conservatives may choose to impose emergency rule to pre-empt protest.
Diplomats say Khatami and other reformers are furious that the US has decided to publicly pressure Iran at such a delicate time.
Perhaps more damaging has been Washington's efforts to promote Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah overthrown in 1979. Even the most radical democracy activists regard him as a laughing stock when he appears on satellite TV broadcasts from Los Angeles.
Irrespective of US meddling, Iran's democracy experiment seems to have hit a brick wall. Six years since the smiling, soft-spoken president was elected on a wave of optimism, Iranians are wondering what happened. "I'm in my 30s. By the time things change, I'll be an old woman," said a professor. "That's too late for me."
At the weekend, 130 reformist MPs issued an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who as supreme leader, or head of state, has the constitutional role of advising the president, warning that Iran might slide into dictatorship if conservatives were allowed to flout the popular will.
Khatami has hinted in the past he might resign. But he has offered no rallying cry. His manner seems more suited to academia, and some close associates say he will seek a negotiated compromise at almost any cost.
The clerics cite the Constitution and Shariah law to justify their veto -- although the reformers claim they exceed their constitutional powers -- and appear in no mood to compromise. Many of Khatami's allies fear negotiation would end in the death of the movement.
Reformists started to lose their footing in 1999, when student protests were brutally crushed by the Basij militia.
"Ever since then, reformers have been on the defensive, afraid of triggering more repression or violence," said one Iranian analyst. At local elections in February, voters expressed disillusionment by staying away from polls, enabling conservatives to win major cities.
Marking the sixth anniversary of his landslide election, the president last week acknowledged the reform campaign had lost its momentum.
"The reality is that we are in a new atmosphere today, and due to natural and unnatural reasons, the original zest and enthusiasm has faded," he wrote.
His detractors see him as an Iranian Alexander Dubcek, the 1968 Czechoslovak "Prague Spring" leader too much part of communism to reform it and too diplomatic a personality to do battle.
Khatami's supporters say he has pushed the system as far as he could.
"He was the right man at the right time in 1997. He opened up discussion and debate. But his chapter is closing," said a middle-aged businesswoman.
"Someone else will have to emerge for the next stage," she said.
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