The truth about the Iranian regime’s new president

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  By Sadegh Pashm-Foroush The day after the announcement of the results of Iran’s sham presidential election, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei summoned the remaining members of the government of former regime president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. In his remarks to them—indirectly addressing new regime president Massoud Pezeshkian—he warned him and reminded him of the “model” of the president in the regime. The supreme leader repeatedly mentioned Raisi and said, “He is truly a model; we must all learn from him.” He then reiterated the concept of “heartfelt belief and practical commitment” to the regime, which Pezeshkian, like all the election candidates, had committed to. Khamenei stated, “Dear Raisi demonstrated as a model that one can possess these mental, heartfelt, and practical qualities as the president of a country and follow them in practice.” Of course, before the sham election, Pezeshkian repeatedly stated that he would continue Raisi...
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Iran’s corrupt and dysfunctional Assembly of Experts

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 The idea for an assembly of experts dates back to the 1979 Iranian Revolution when a constituent assembly was needed to draft a new constitution. Debates over the nature of that body ultimately led to the formation of a small, expert-based group rather than a larger assembly of representatives from all over the country. The first assembly was dissolved after the constitution was ratified in December 1979. The Assembly of Experts, in its current form, was established in 1982 under Article 108 of the constitution. It officially began work in 1983. Subsequent elections were held in 1991, 1999, and 2007. The scheduled 2015 election was delayed for a year until February 2016 based on the 2009 electoral law, which synchronized the parliamentary elections held every four years with the assembly’s elections held every eight years. 



This body chose Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri as the designated successor to the founder and then Supreme Leader of the regime, Khomeini in 1985. But Montazeri was stripped of his title after a fallout with the Supreme Leader following Rohollah Khomeini’s fatwa to execute 30,000 political prisoners. There was no immediate replacement. The assembly chose Khamenei after Khomeini’s death in 1989 as the Supreme Leader. But the Iranian constitution at the time required the Leader to be a marja’ (source of emulation), which Khamenei was not. So the assembly reconfirmed Khamenei as the leader after the elimination of the constitutional criteria of marja’ that had been approved by voters in 1989. In the 1979 constitution, the Supreme Leader could be selected through direct election by the people or through the selection of elected experts. But the constitution was revised in 1989 to make the assembly the sole body responsible for the Supreme Leader’s election.

Written and unwritten duties of the Assembly of Experts

What is the main function of the Assembly of Experts? Why does it interfere in all matters except fulfilling the duty set for it by the constitution of the Islamic Republic? According to the constitution, the main task of the institution is to elect the next leader, supervise the leader’s performance at his post and remove the leader when necessary. So far, no example of leadership oversight of any kind has been seen in the record of the institution. The Assembly of Experts has done nothing other than confirm Khamenei as the Supreme Leader and put its seal of approval on all Khamenei says and does. According to the constitution, the Assembly of Experts is above and beyond the Supreme Leader, but not a day goes by that the speaker of the assembly and its members do not declare their loyalty and sincerity to Khamenei or openly show their unconditional support for him. According to the Assembly’s Chairman Ahmad Jannati, “the Assembly of Experts must support the Supreme Leader regularly and continuously to help him establish his authority.”

The reality is that the Assembly of Experts has its say in all matters of the country that are in line with Ali Khamenei’s ideas and involves itself in people’s private and public lives. In fact, it does everything except what it is supposed to do according to the constitution. 

In simple terms, the Assembly of Experts is basically a gang composed of the most hardline religious authorities in Iran. The assembly’s members are supposed to be chosen by a free election, a matter that in Iran, under the regime of mullahs, has never happened. About every one million people can send a representative to this assembly. But in reality, the election of these 88 members has nothing to do with popular votes. They are appointed or selected by the supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. They don’t even need to be born or reside in their constituency. 

A close look at the Assembly of Experts

The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member body of Islamic jurists. The assembly has a leadership council and six committees. The leadership is elected by secret ballot for two years and consists of the assembly’s chair, two vice-chairs, two secretaries, and two assistants.

This dysfunctional and corrupt body deeply associated with Ali Khamenei had lost 21% of its member due to death, and 23% are over 75 years old (this term). The high mortality rate and old age of its members have been troublesome news for the officials of the Assembly of Experts. According to Iran Watch, “Ahmad Jannati, 96, heads the assembly of Experts, and Movahedi Kermani, 91 years old, is Janati’s second deputy. The youngest member of the Assembly of Experts was Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri, who is 78 years old and resigned after his controversial trip to Manchester, England, for apparently, medical reasons.

Of course, during the past decades, these experts, in addition to being experts in honoring, flattering and sucking up to Khamenei, have also become experts in facilitating the expansion of the regime’s suppressive apparatus and approving the arrest, torture and execution of innocent protestors throughout Iran. Only the names of people like Jannati, Raisi, Shahroudi and Dori Najafabadi are enough to remember the massacre of Ahvaz University, the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, the serial killings of artists and poets and other organized crimes of the regime.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the parliament, the Guardian Council, the President, the Supreme Leader, the IRGS, etc., have one common mission in Iran: to ensure their existence at whatever cost. The ever-growing level of suppression in Iran, on the one hand, and the growing influence of Iran’s proxies and international terrorism abroad, on the other hand, are unwavering indications that the threat of terrorism, the threat of fundamentalism and the threat of the mullahs in Iran are imminent, real, serious and dangerous. Trying to ignore these stark and alarming realities with any kind of deals, appeasment, political gestures, economic treaties, awarding ransom, and shaking hands with this regime is foolish and will not be forgotten by the people of Iran, the main victims of this regime.

This article was first published by irannewswire

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