First Vice President of Rouhani: We Must Accept the People's Vote

As verbal clashes between Rouhani's government and other institutions of the Islamic Republic have intensified following Mr. Rouhani's re-election, the First Vice President, Eshaq Jahangiri, stated that "we must accept the people's vote" and emphasized that "the government will not deviate from its path." According to ISNA, Eshaq Jahangiri, the First Vice President of Iran, said on Saturday morning, July 1, at the annual monetary and exchange policy conference held at the International Conference Center of IRIB: "In these days, some cannot ignore their anger at the people's vote." Jahangiri criticized certain statements and movements regarding the recent election results, saying: "I also do not know when these individuals will be able to relax, but they must know that the people have done nothing to make them angry and attack the people and their elected representatives in this way." Jahangiri continued: "The people voted in an election, and a person was elected with a very high vote. In this situation, there is no need to weave tales and say that the people voted incorrectly; we must accept the people's vote." He concluded by saying: "The main goal of these individuals is to distract the President and the government with such discussions, but it is clear that the government does not want to be preoccupied with these issues"; he emphasized that the government will not deviate from its path. These remarks by the First Vice President of Rouhani come as some supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei have warned that due to Rouhani's insistence on issues such as UNESCO cultural matters and his objections to the IRGC's interference in economic affairs, he might face a fate similar to that of Abolhassan Banisadr. Abolhassan Banisadr was the first President of the Islamic Republic who was dismissed by the then Supreme Leader and forced to leave the country. A day before Jahangiri's remarks, Ali Saidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC, also spoke on this issue and labeled the confrontation between Banisadr and Ruhollah Khomeini, the then Supreme Leader, as the confrontation of "the party of Satan with Hezbollah" and warned: "If the elites, politicians, and statesmen do not act within the framework of Islamic principles and the foundations of the revolution, they will move in a deviant direction and will fall." "The people have no role in determining divine authority." On June 14, Rouhani stated at an Iftar gathering with professors and doctors: "The Commander of the Faithful considers the basis of authority and governance to be the opinion of the people and their choice. He said that whoever you choose as your leader, I will also obey and implement it." According to Mehr News Agency, Ali Khamenei's representative in the IRGC reacted to these statements on Friday, stating that "today we hear issues where some say we must go back and speak from the pulpits about the foundations of principles," adding: "These people consider the people's vote as the source of authority, which was established after the killing of Uthman and the people's allegiance to Ali, which is inconsistent with Islamic principles." Ali Saidi emphasized: "The people have a role in realizing religious governance, not in determining God's representative, and any theory other than this is inconsistent with the Quran and Islamic principles." He stressed that "the Imam says that the people have no role in determining divine authority" and added: "From the Imam's perspective, the people are the means of realizing divine authority." Before Ali Saidi, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi also recently responded in Qom to Rouhani's statements that the basis of authority and governance is "the opinion of the people" and said: "This is a strange statement." This cleric from Qom's seminary rejected the Iranian President's remarks on this matter, emphasizing: "The divine ruler must be appointed by God." Saidi: We regret that some insiders attack the IRGC. On Friday, Hojjatoleslam Saidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC, continued his remarks by saying: "The IRGC does not seek profit in reconstruction; it has accepted projects that the private sector does not undertake and even carries them out on credit without receiving the costs, and we regret that both America attacks the IRGC and some insiders do as well." These comments come after Rouhani criticized the military's entry into Iran's economic sphere on July 1, stating: "Part of the economy was under a gunless government, which we handed over to a government with guns; this is not economy and privatization. They were afraid of the government that had no guns, let alone handing the economy to a government that has both guns and media and everything, and no one dares to compete with them." In conclusion, Ali Saidi emphasized in his latest remarks in response to Rouhani's statements: "The IRGC's gun targets the hypocrites, meaning yesterday's and today's Daesh, and the IRGC's missile is also part of the regime's defensive pillars and has a deterrent nature." This verbal confrontation occurs as recent days have seen a verbal tension between the leader and the President of Iran, to the extent that Ayatollah Khamenei on June 7 deemed the 2030 document unauthorized again, and the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, chaired by Rouhani, removed the UNESCO 2030 document from its agenda in its Tuesday session. Following that, Khamenei spoke of the exorbitant costs of reconciliation; Rouhani responded that enduring peace is much harder than fighting.