Not enough in the article to EFL...
President Mohammad Khatami was admitted to the hospital Saturday with severe back pain, forcing the postponement of an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis over parliamentary elections. Earlier Saturday, Khatami indicated to reporters his government could not proceed with the Feb. 20 vote under the conditions that the hard-line Guardian Council had imposed, demanding that about 3,000 reformist candidates be stricken from the ballot. "My government will only hold competitive and free elections ... the parliament must represent the views of the majority and include all (political) tendencies," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as saying. |