Iran restricts opposition figure to home

ISTANBUL — Iranian security forces prevented former president and opposition figure Mohammad Khatami from leaving his Tehran home late Wednesday, media outlets reported.

Activists called it the latest sign that regime hard-liners were seeking to crack down on the country’s reformist sects, activists said.

Two opposition-linked news sites said security forces had arrived at Khatami’s home in the Iranian capital to block the ex-president from meeting with political allies, a move one outlet referred to as “temporary house arrest.”

Khatami, a popular reformist cleric, served two terms as president, from 1997-2005, but was later banned from public appearances after supporting anti-government protests in 2009. An order from a state prosecutor earlier this month tightened those restrictions, according to one of Khatami’s lawyers, including a three-month ban on receiving political guests.

The government did not publicly confirm the restrictions. Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Iran’s hard-liners are sending a message to those seeking to change the government.

“Khatami’s restricted mobility, which essentially places him under house arrest, carries a message from Iranian hard-liners to reformists,” he said. “It says, ‘Ultimately, you are dispensable.’”