Iranian political system is characterized by its duality of power: In the executive branch we have the dual offices of the President and the Supreme Leader, in the legislative branch we have the Parliament and the Council of Guardians, and in the military we have the regular forces and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Often time this duality of power leads to an incoherent policy, which makes it hard to portray the Iranian government one way or another. The contradictory statements made by the Iranian officials reveal that Iranian political system has no single voice.
When the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his full backing to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the disputed election result, it looked like the dual structures of the Iranian political system were in an agreement. Though as the weeks have passed, this façade has come down. Just weeks after the disputed election, there was a disagreement between President Ahmadinejad and the Parliament over Ahmadinejad’s choice of Mr. Mashaii as the Vice President. In this conflict, the Supreme Leader gave his full support to the Parliament, even directly asking for Mr. Mashaii’s removal. Ahmadinejad fought back by firing the Minister of Intelligence Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehei, because he was reporting to the Supreme Leader without first letting Ahmadinejad know. Ejehai and his deputies had prepared a report for Ayatollah Khamenei, which concluded that Ahmadinejad and his supporters in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) were wrong in claiming that there was a link between foreign powers and the protests that erupted after the rigged presidential election of June 12.
This might be the reason why Ayatollah Khamenei has not backed Ahmadinejad’s call for the prosecution of the leaders of protests against his recent re-election. In fact, Ayatollah Khamenei has stated quite clearly that the reformist leaders are not part of a foreign conspiracy to destroy the Islamic Republic:
“I do not accuse the leaders of the recent incidents to be subordinate to the foreigners, like the United States and Britain, since this issue has not been proven for me.”
Ayatollah Khamenei has also hired Sadeq Larijani, who by no means is a reformist, but is still a moderate. Sadeq Larijani has already ordered a probe into allegations by pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi that some opposition protesters were raped in jail. Larijani has also removed a hard-line Tehran prosecutor, who played a key role in the mass trials of leading reformers arrested over unrest that erupted after the disputed presidential
This is not the first time that there is a conflict between the two leaders of the executive branch. Under the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami, there was tension with the conservative Supreme Leader. Though this time, there is one major difference: the moderate voice now belongs to the Supreme Leader. This provides the international community with a glass half-full or half-empty situation. If you are an optimist then the fact that the moderate voice belongs to Ayatollah Khamenei is good news. Since the Supreme Leader is regarded as the most powerful position in Iran, this means that he can stop the witch-hunt in Iran. But the negative side is that Iranian political leadership has moved so much towards the right that now Ayatollah Khamenei (who did nothing to stop the brutal repression of the student protests in 1999 and 2003) is the moderate one.
Photo taken from the Christian Science Monitor.
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