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In his first major speech since 13^th July when he condemned the students protest movement, a seemingly combative President Mohammad Khatami presented himself under a new image and sweeping aside all possible compromise with some conservatives factions denounced as "enemies", he said though he was expecting some troubles after the last autumn chain murders, yet the crisis the nation faced was much worse than he could imagine.

"In fact, the recent unrest was not only an act against security and peace and stability, but a riot, a declaration of war against the President and his programmes, an act aimed at inculcating that security can not be secured but by violence", the embattled President said, speaking to a cheering crowd in the Western city of Hamadan, where is burried Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great Iranian philosopher-scientist.

Mr. Khatami condemned as a "crime" the attack on the student's dormitory on the night of eight July an operation that set the stage for the following days unrest and the subsequent crackdown of student's pro-democracy movement on 13^th July, ordered by the leader, the ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, but he failed to identify the attackers.

As a result of that attack carried out by the Ansar Hezbollah thugs backed by the Law Enforcement Forces and the Intelligence Ministry special units, between 5 to 11 students were reported killed and 200 other wounded, while police and Islamic vigilante arrested more than 1400 protesters.

Observers noted that the speech was full of contradictions and confusion as, by brushing aside all divergences and differences among the regime's top leaders and stressing on the "perfect" co-ordination between the leader and the Government, the ayatollah Khatami would admit to his approval of the violent crushing of the students on orders from the leader and carried out by the hard liners.

"The Government obey the leader who, in turn, has always backed the President", Mr. Khatami said, citing the "dangerous and deviated movement inside the Information (Intelligence) Ministry as an example of this co-operation, where, according to him, "the firm stand of the leader and the President's decision made it possible to discover the culprits"

To some observers, Mr. Khatami's highlighting the existing harmony between himself and the leader is an effort to prove that Mr. Khameneh'i can not be associated with the conservatives and against the reformists. "This is an answer to the conservatives who present Mr. Khameneh'i as their leader and themselves as the only followers of the leader", commented Mr. Sa'id Leylaz, Editor of the new daily "Azad" (Free).

Though his victory has helped the flourishing of a vibrant press and the opening of mouths, yet the hard liners were able to jail several of his closest allies and supporters, including the hojatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar, a modernist dubbed as the Iranian "Calvin", the shutting down of some pro-reform newspapers like "Zan" (Woman) that was edited by Mrs. Fa'ezeh Hashemi, an influential MP from Tehran and more recently "Salam", the main bastion of the reformists.

Mr. Khatami hinted that after his victory, the people were witness of a" wave of terror, efforts to destabilise the society and disseminate violence".

Presenting the recent troubles as the "continuation of the same plots", Mr. Khatami said the enemies have always tried to project a dark and violent image of the revolution in order to better put on show their own violence but, he warned, "violence is condemned under any form".

"Whatever pretext they use, perpetrators of violence are wrong and their blame is greater because of using people's believe or acting under the cover of the revolution's most brilliant personalities. But those who try to theorise the violence, to give it a philosophical meaning, to present it as a revolutionary duty, to justify it by invoking religion are even more reprehensible", the President said in a clear and unmistakable answer to some hard line ayatollahs who reminds that Islam is the religion of blood and violence against its enemies.

Mr. Khatami vowed justice for the students, promising that those responsible for the bloodshed at the dorms as well as the murderers of political and intellectual dissidents "will get tough punishment no matter who they are", but he stopped short of saying who ordered the attack on the dormitories, nor did he condemn the conservatives responsible for the crackdown on the students.

He promised that he will "not rest until I cut the last roots of corruption", but he failed to identify those who ordered the assassinations, nor did he explained why he did not dismissed the Commander of the LEF the students say is responsible for the savage raid on the dormitories.

Analysts said his condemnation of the student's movement cost him dearly both at home and abroad.

His standing on the international scene, enhanced after his election with his project of dialogue among civilisation was blackened by the arrest of 13 orthodox Jews on charges of espionage for Israel, Turkey and the United States.

"I knew from the outset that facing this affair, identifying and uprooting the culprits has a very high price and I was expecting crisis to be created, but I've made a pledge with my God that I now repeat it with you that I shall go till the end, till cutting the hands of those responsible, whoever they might be and be certain that the catastrophe that passed over the head of the Islamic Republic was so important that the price one has to pay is worthy", Mr. Khatami added, promising that the next Majles (parliament) elections would take place in due time and under good conditions.

Analysts say the present political unrest and cut throat feuding between the conservatives and the reformists are the result of the struggle for the control of the next Majles, presently a conservative's stronghold that many think might fall to the reformist camp of the President. ENDS KHATAMI HAMADAN 29799