Internal conflicts escalate in Iran with approaching presidential elections

Eslam Mohamed

With the approach of the Iranian presidential elections scheduled to take place in June, political conflicts are escalating between the reformist and hardline currents, while disputes within each stream are also escalating. The reformists who represent the current government headed by President Hassan Rouhani accuse their hardline counterparts of deliberately failing them and scoring points against them.

Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri told the parliament and the Expediency Council that his government was failing because of the deliberate delay in ratifying the country’s laws to join the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“They obstruct the government’s work and then say: Why don’t you work?” Jahangiri said, accusing the hardliners of inventing flimsy excuses to obstruct the matter, adding, “There are some parties that have not dealt with simple issues to solve people’s problems, but on the other hand they have been spinning tales and fabricating stories about the topic for six or seven years.”

Jahangiri also criticized the interference of some bodies controlled by the hardliners in the work of the government, saying, “They restrict the work of the government and mortgage the lives of people, then they say: Why does the government not work?”

“It is not correct for anyone to insult another’s responsibility. It is not permissible to be in a position and then want to practice the work of the president of the republic. Everyone who wants to be president of the republic must run and present himself to the people,” he added.

A number of reformist names are on the list of potential presidential candidates, led by current Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as President Rouhani has no right to run again for a third term, according to the constitution.

With regard to the hardliner current, Saeed Mohammad, a leader in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced his resignation in order to run for the presidency. However, the political assistant in the IRGC, Yadollah Javani, announced on Sunday, April 4, that the dismissal of Mohammad from the leadership of the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters was due only to “violations and lack of commitment to laws.”

Javani published statements in the media, saying, “The violations that I have referred to are the emergence of political-electoral behavior that contradicts the current laws of the Revolutionary Guard.”

Javani confirmed in a statement to Fars News Agency that the IRGC’s entry into the elections or supporting individuals or electoral lists “contradicts the laws,” adding that Saeed Mohammad did not present his resignation from his post, but was dismissed because of his legal wrongdoing.

Following Javani’s interview and some reactions on social media, Mohammad issued a statement denying that he had committed any violation of the law, confirming that Javani is not a spokesman for the IRGC and that he “gave his personal analysis” in this regard.

In a move that reflects the extent of the disagreement within the institution, IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif confirmed that “Saeed Mohammad did not commit any violations based on official IRGC laws, and the Revolutionary Guard’s political assistant may recant his accusations,” adding, “Everyone who says that there is a violation must explain precisely what the violation is.”

Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, dismissed Saeed Mohammad from his post a month ago and appointed Hossein Hoshi to succeed him in leading the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters.