"A number of Cabinet ministers and several vice presidents have resigned. Naturally, they are waiting to see how things go," Abtahi told reporters following a Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace. "The Cabinet ministers are very serious about their resignation." When asked if he'd also resigned, Abtahi smiled but did not respond.
The resignations are the latest twist in an ongoing political crisis between reformists and hard-liners. Iran's Guardian Council, an appointed body controlled by hard-liners, triggered the crisis when it disqualified more than a third of the 8,200 people who applied as candidates in the February 20th elections. Disqualified reformist lawmakers have been holding sit-ins and dawn-to-dusk fasts to protest the move.
Abtahi's announcement came a day after a hard-line council said it was reinstating 200 candidates barred from running in next month's legislative elections and would reconsider the cases of thousands more. This move followed fierce opposition from reformists, who threatened to boycott the vote, though there were doubts that the council would move quickly and completely enough to allow a free and fair election on February 20th. Khatami himself warned that he might resign if the disqualifications are not reversed.
State media controlled by hard-liners say that disqualified candidates failed to meet the legal criteria, but reformists maintain the move was intended to skew the elections in favor of conservatives.
