Word: iranian
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Playing in the international soccer championship, partying in the streets, putting old grudges to rest? Yes, outcast and uptight Iran is changing. Slowly, for sure, but certainly faster than anyone could have imagined just one year ago. Since the surprise 1997 election of Mohammed Khatami, who in Iranian terms is a moderate, a fierce internal battle has begun, with the stakes being the future of the mullah-led theocracy...
...with a remarkable 70% of the popular vote, hard-liners retained all the instruments of state power: control of the army, the police and the courts, as well as the terrorist elements that have caused mayhem abroad. The fundamentalists also continue to hold a majority in the 270-member Iranian Parliament...
...other first-round game features an intriguing political matchup against Iran. The U.S.-Iran match was one of the first sellouts in France, which has a large contingent of Iranian expatriates. The Iranians, one of the weaker teams, can return home as heroes by beating the Great Satan II. Says Khodadad Azizi, one of Iran's top players: "The U.S.A. mistreated our country. In the war they supported our enemy, Iraq. That's why a victory against the U.S.A. will be a special victory." Iran's team prayed at the tomb of Ayatullah Khomeini before flying off to France...
TEHRAN: The U.S. soccer team may get support from an unexpected quarter in its World Cup clash with Iran on Sunday -- the Islamic country's conservative mullahs. The last thing Iranian conservatives want is a victory that would produce another outburst like the one that happened when Iran qualified to go to France. "Men and women together in the streets celebrating and having fun horrified the conservative leadership, but there was nothing they could do about it," says TIME Middle East bureau chief Scott MacLeod. When Iran got the World Cup invite, there were eight-hour demonstrations in the major...
...look at the big picture. An Iranian soccer victory would help President Khatami's efforts to reconcile with the West. Says MacLeod: "If Iran wins it'll show Iranians that America is not the 'Great Satan,' especially when they see the Americans shaking hands with them after being defeated." A sound case for the favored Americans to throw the game? Perhaps, but losing to a traditional enemy might be a little hard for Americans to swallow. So perhaps the growing rapprochement between Washington and Tehran would be best served by a well-fought draw...