President Mohammad Khatami of Iran was strengthened in his new office this week by winning approval for his cabinet. But he now faces the challenge of carrying out his election mandate for reform and faces high expectations at home and abroad.
The Majlis (Parliament) gave its vote of confidence to Mr Khatami's cabinet on Wednesday, handing him his most significant political victory since his landslide election win in May. The new cabinet holds its first meeting early next month, and Mr Khatami's vice-presidential appointments, including the possible selection of a woman, are expected by then.
President Khatami (54), a moderate Shia Muslim cleric, owed his election victory to young voters, women and the middle class who hoped he could inject fresh freedoms into Iranian society. Now, says the Iran News, the "watching voters anxiously await the change he promised them." The Persian language Iran has hailed "the beginning of a new era".
Akhbar was equally optimistic, saying the people now understand "they can change history". The daily Hamshahri even suggested the move to liberalisation would be accepted as inevitable in more conservative circles, arguing that the president's opponents had now "grasped the message of the people clearly . . . They have understood the necessity for change."
Wednesday's vote in the Majlis came after a stormy, televised debate over two days, marked by harsh attacks on the new ministers. But in a one-hour speech before the vote, Mr Khatami urged deputies to ensure Iran's "progress, spiritually and materialistically," and to "admit that differences of opinion exist in [Iranian] society".
He stressed his "firm opposition to any form of cultural repression" and said he favoured "greater cultural openness".
Shia Islam has often offered a more pluralist and tolerant approach than other schools, and Mr Khatami's speech was an eloquent plea for openness, tolerance and pluralism that was long thought to have faded into a minority opinion in Iran. His success in securing the appointment of Mr Ataollah Mohajerani as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance is a major fillip for his attempt to allow greater domestic freedoms.
The Culture Ministry has a key influence on daily life, deciding what media, books, films and music are allowed, and controlling social behaviour and women's dress, and so Mr Mohajerani's appointment became the focus of the debate between the conservatives and the moderates.
Journalists complain that authorities often shut down publications arbitrarily. Hardline groups have gone unpunished for beating university lecturers, attacking liberal magazines, and burning a bookshop.
Several deputies accused Mr Mohajerani of being "lenient and pro-Western," of having "links with liberals," and of having proposed a dialogue with the US to normalise relations cut in 1980. They also claimed he favours lifting Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa on Salman Rushdie.
One deputy, Mr Mohammad Zadsar, went so far as to ask Mr Mohajerani to state "clearly and unambiguously whether or not he would slay Salman Rushdie if he came face to face with him". But Mr Mohajerani, who was behind a book criticising what was described as the "Satanic Verses conspiracy," side-stepped the question.
Mr Mohajerani defended his appointment in a 48-minute speech - the longest by any of the nominees - saying he is tolerant in the same way Islam is tolerant of different viewpoints. "I disagree with almost all of the present practices in the Culture Ministry. We have to protect artists and provide an atmosphere for creativity, tranquillity and freedom," he told deputies.
"Everybody who has accepted the Islamic Republic and its constitution must be subject to tolerance . . . I condemn the burning of bookshops, the beating of university lecturers and attacks on magazine offices," he said.
Mr Mohajerani vowed to make "fundamental changes at every level" of the Culture Ministry and "to guarantee respect for cultural and artistic freedoms". In a country where satellite television is still banned and people have been arrested for attending mixed parties, Mr Mohajerani's speech appears to herald a new era of cultural freedom.
Mr Khatami, a former Culture Minister himself, forcefully backed the views of Mr Mohajerani, telling deputies the ideas of his nominee "are my own ideas. Whatever was said against him was said against me before the election, and do not forget that the people chose my view."
In a direct challenge to his main election rival, Mr Khatami was seen on television during the debate instructing the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ali Akbar NateqNouri, to extend the time allowed for Mr Mohajerani to speak.
Perhaps the most interesting appointment could prove to be the new Foreign Minister, Dr Kamal Kharrazi, who spent most of his academic and diplomatic life in the US, and who speaks in a more conciliatory tone than his hardline predecessor, Mr Ali Akbar Velayati.
The President speaks of a "more active and dynamic foreign policy" and has promised to strive for detente in Iran's relations with other countries. Already there have been indications of positive responses from the EU, the US, Iraq, and even from Israel.
The EU should see the new Iranian government as an opportunity to improve strained ties with Tehran, Iran's recalled ambassador to Bonn, Mr Hossein Moussavian, told Iran News on Wednesday. President Clinton may have hinted at a softening stance when he indicated US firms could take part in some limited Iranian oil transactions involving projects in the Caspian Sea area. In a gesture to the new president this week, Israel halted Persian-language broadcasts from an Israeli satellite that incited violence against Iran.
And after any years of antagonism in the wake of the Gulf War, Iraq this week opened its borders for Iranians to visit some of the most sacred Shia sites in a country where Ayatollah Khomeini once lived in political exile.
However, Ayatollah Khamenei, who has paramount power over all state institutions, is anxious to keep a tight grip on foreign policy, particularly Iran's hostile relations with the US, and has appointed Mr Velayati as a special adviser.
A leading cleric close to Ayatollah Khameini said yesterday that new government did not mean Iran's stands against the US and Israel would be revised. "Governments come and go but our principles stay intact," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the speaker of Iran's powerful Guardian Council, told a mass prayer meeting at Tehran University, at which the crowd shouted: "Hizbullah is victorious, America is defeated."
The battle lines have been drawn.