Ali Motahari Responds to Khamenei's Remarks: 'Fire at Will' is Mutual

Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, states that 'fire at will' encompasses all cultural, political, and economic domains and is a 'mutual' issue. In an interview with the 'House of the Nation' news agency on Wednesday, June 14, he explained the 'intention' of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic regarding the term 'fire at will': 'If officials do not fulfill their duties, students and other sectors are obliged to take action themselves.' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, on June 7, used the military term 'fire at will' to urge 'soft war officers' to act and make decisions when there is 'disruption and shutdown' in the central intellectual, cultural, and political apparatuses of the country. Khamenei's remarks received significant attention, with some analysts interpreting them as a license for his supporters to act without permission against opponents and the policies of Hassan Rouhani's government, viewing the potential outcome as creating 'chaos.' In response, Motahari characterized 'fire at will' as mutual, citing examples of 'distorting freedom of expression,' 'prohibiting critics from expressing opinions,' 'arrests without explanation of Telegram channel managers,' 'arrests and stigmatizing journalists and students,' and 'arrests and house arrests without judicial orders and contrary to the constitution' as instances where, according to him, 'students and indeed other sectors of the public are at will because officials have not fulfilled their duties.' The Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament also interpreted the Supreme Leader's remarks as a means to 'protect the tenets of religion and cultural independence and respect for freedoms,' noting that the effects are 'directed at both the government and all governmental institutions,' concluding: 'In fact, both sides are at will.' Motahari's comments come after media outlets close to conservatives analyzed and interpreted Khamenei's remarks as 'confrontation with any phenomenon that undermines the legitimacy of the regime.' The Tasnim news agency, in an analysis published on June 13, wrote: 'Anyone who reduces the legitimacy of the regime has, in a way, entered a war against the regime and must be confronted.' While conservative media interpreted Khamenei's remarks in favor of 'their own groups,' some factions close to them have attacked such interpretations. The 'Dolat Bahar' website, close to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote: 'It seems the Leader has lost hope in the elites of society (including reformists and conservatives) and considers changing managers useless. In such a situation where we are experiencing a shortage of officers, he has directly addressed the soldiers and entrusted them with the authority to open fire.' This site then addressed those they called 'claimants of conservatism,' stating: 'The leadership has, in fact, with their new order, disqualified you (like the reformists) and made the soldiers independent of orders like you. So please do not act as if you are the creditors of the situation, O merchants of fire at will!' Previously, Mohsen Kadivar, a writer and religious researcher residing in the United States, wrote in a note on his website: 'Fire at will is a situation where military communications in the war are disrupted, and the fighters are scattered. The overall command has no hope of advancing its programs and plans through organizational order; therefore, in an effort for survival, by declaring the fire at will position, it has pinned its hopes on the blind and chaotic fire of its individuals.' According to Kadivar, 'the declaration of the fire at will position is an admission of the license for chaos, as the commander has found the existing order to be a loss.' The spokesman for Hassan Rouhani's government, in the first official reaction to Khamenei's 'fire at will' command, warned that 'political exploitation' of the Supreme Leader's remarks would be a 'great injustice' to him. Mohammad Baqer Nobakht stated on June 13 at a press conference: 'This fire at will issue should also be considered in such a way that every individual is responsible for culture and must strive to elevate the cultural level of society.'