Washington Post, pA31 - June 6, 1997
Two Iranian Muslim clerics, one Sunni and one Shiite, described last month's election results as a rejection of parliamentary Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, the handpicked candidate of Iran's hard-line Islamic leadership, rather than a vote for moderate President-elect Mohammad Khatemi.
In statements here, they both said the concept that clerics have a divine right to rule is un-Islamic. "The regime overestimated its hand in believing it had a popular base, and 20 million people rejected them outright," said Kenneth R. Timmerman, who translated for Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani, the religious leader of Iranian Shiites in Europe, and Molavi Ali Akbar Mollazadeh, a Sunni cleric from the Iranian province of Baluchistan. Timmerman, head of the Washington-based Foundation for Democracy in Iran, escorted Rouhani and Mollazadeh around town this week to meetings with U.S. officials and members of the Iranian community.
Timmerman said his foundation is "committed to help Iranians build a united opposition movement" and that Rouhani is here in part to address that goal. Rouhani was invited here by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and spoke to its board on Islam, Judaism and the harmony of the monotheistic faiths. The institute is a think tank seeking stronger U.S.-Israeli security ties.