IRAN - Profile - Sayyed Mohammad Khatami.

Iran's 5th President in office since August 1997, Khatami is the highest authority in the hydrocarbon sector as he chairs the Supreme Economic Council. The SEC is the top decision maker on all the economic matters. Khatami is a religious figure with a rank of hojatulislam (Hoj). He was elected to the presidency on May 23, 1997 in a landslide victory over the traditionalists, which came as a stunning political upset since Ayatullah Khomeini ousted the pro-American shah in early 1979. Khatami was a relatively low-profile figure before his late entrance into the presidential race.

President Khatami is not involved in day-to-day matters in the energy sector, although he keeps a close eye on developments like Khamen'i does. Khatami is confident enough in his own leadership as well as the abilities of his cabinet members to delegate decision making powers to the oil ministry. Of course, this does not mean that he is out of the loop on important decisions, or that he is unaware of the importance of the hydrocarbons sector to the Iranian economy. He did not have any links to this sector in the past, however. Khatami's background is as a theologian, thinker and a minister of culture and Islamic guidance from 1982 to 1992. He was forced to resign in 1992 because traditionalists in the Majlis and other institutions judged his views to be too "liberal", a term which in Iranian politics in the early 1990s was almost an insult (see Khatami's detailed profile in APS Review, Gas Market Trends, Vol. 52, No. 16).