Government Official: The Assembly of Experts is Seeking Oversight over the Three Branches Instead of the Leader

A deputy in the legal department of the presidency states that although the Assembly of Experts lacks the "authority" to oversee the three branches according to the constitution, this body has, for several years, been engaged in "providing guidance" to other branches instead of fulfilling its legal duties. Ali Akbar Gorji, the deputy for constitutional law enforcement in the legal department of the presidency, emphasized in an interview with ILNA that the Assembly of Experts "not only has no authority to oversee other branches, but such authority is not even anticipated for it." According to Gorji, even if such authority were anticipated in the constitution, "it could not exercise it because the scope of oversight over the leadership is such that it practically leaves no opportunity to peek into other areas." He criticized that the Assembly of Experts "has been providing guidance to other branches instead of performing its oversight duties" over the Supreme Leader and his subordinates for several years. This government official also sarcastically remarked, "History will never hold the members of the Assembly of Experts accountable for their lack of oversight over the President, ministers, and governors, but it will severely question how they oversee the leadership and the institutions under the leadership." He expressed hope that the oversight committees of the Assembly of Experts would be established and activated soon, and that the results of their inspections and audits would be regularly communicated to the ruling nation to pave the way for Iran's development and prosperity. His remarks come after Hassan Rouhani did not attend the fifth official meeting of the Assembly of Experts, which was focused on "examining the Leader's demands for improving the country's economic situation and solving people's livelihood problems." In the final resolution of this assembly, in addition to addressing the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic, which falls under the duties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a stance was taken regarding the internal economic situation, placing all the country's problems on the government and executive institutions. In this recent assembly, Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Assembly of Experts, repeatedly referred to the Supreme Leader as the main decision-maker in all matters of the country, while simultaneously absolving him of responsibility regarding the country's economic problems and the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic in the region, which is the main factor behind the return of sanctions against the country. Jannati, in line with the usual rhetoric of this assembly, strongly defended Ali Khamenei's performance during the opening ceremony, stating, "The disarray in the country is attributed to the leadership, as if the leadership is the active player in all economic, social, and political matters, while the parliament and government are ineffective; this is the enemy's sinister plan." The deputy of the legal department's statements regarding the illegal performance of the Assembly of Experts come at a time when the inability or lack of willingness of the Assembly of Experts to oversee the performance of Khamenei's subordinates has once again become a hot topic. With the commencement of the fifth meeting of the Assembly of Experts and Jannati's defense of the leader's performance, Mehdi Karroubi, a leader of the Green Movement, in a letter addressed to the members of the Assembly of Experts, urged them to question the Supreme Leader about the policies of the past three decades that have led Iran to its current condition, instead of "praising and glorifying" him. In this letter, Karroubi wrote, "The lack of effective oversight by the Assembly of Experts over the leadership and the institutions under this authority, including the Guardian Council, the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, the judiciary, state media, and economic foundations and institutions over the past three decades has inflicted irreparable damage on the country and the people." He had previously written in an open letter to Ali Khamenei, "For three decades, you have been at the helm of the system and still speak from the position of an opposition. In these three decades, you have sidelined a significant portion of the original forces of the revolution to implement your desired policies, and today you are facing the results of those very policies." The letter from Karroubi and the recent statements from the deputy of the presidency come at a time when Iran's economy has been under increasing pressure for months, with the value of the rial sharply declining against foreign currencies, especially the dollar, and the prices of goods and services in Iran rising significantly. Following the announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA and the return of the first round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, along with U.S. pressure to reduce Iran's oil sales to zero due to Tehran's regional policies in the Middle East, concerns regarding the country's economic situation in the coming months have increased.