Iranian President Mohammad Khatami appears to be making good on his pledge to introduce social and economic reforms. Several months ago, the country’s reformist-dominated parliament passed a bill on joining an international convention on enforcement of arbitration awards, which would not only help attract sorely needed foreign capital but would count toward meeting some of the requirements for eventual membership in the WTO. The US apparently took notice, and said it would review its veto of Iran’s five-year-old request to join the global trade body. Iran initially applied to begin accession talks in 1996; however, the bid was blocked by the US and other Western countries that accused Iran of supporting global terrorism.