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the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution this week.

It is unclear whether the Guardian Council, a hard-line body of clerics close to the supreme leader that has the power to approve or disqualify candidates, will try to prevent Mr. Khatami from running.Conservative politicians and former supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad who now criticize his policies have said that if Mr. Khatami entered the race, they would unite behind Mr. Ahmadinejad.

he is not deep in his thinking

opposition leaders — much like their hard-line foes — are girding supporters for a long-term battle to be waged as much through ideas and quiet social organizing as through the public protests that followed Iran’s disputed presidential election on June 12. Both Mr. Khatami and members of the group he addressed, the Islamic Society of University Professors, expressed deep concerns about threats to academic freedom in the coming school year. On Saturday, after days of calls by conservatives to purge Iran’s universities of professors and curriculums deemed “un-Islamic,” the government announced the start of a high-level investigation on how the humanities are taught.

a “soft war” against internal enemies. Anyone in the field of culture must now recognize important distinctions between “friends and enemies,” “attack and defense” and “explanation and propaganda,”

He warned that the West, with its sophisticated media outlets, is better equipped for soft war than Iran.

Those who know Khatami say he believes the council wouldn't dare disqualify him.

city vs. village in Iran — city voters being better educated and tending toward the liberal side; village voters more conservative.

Many conservatives have come to be critical of the controversial Iranian president.