Jannati; The Embodiment of the Islamic Republic

Ahmad Jannati has been elected as the head of the Assembly of Experts. He is a person who embodies the reality of the Islamic Republic. The Secretary of the Guardian Council took his place at the head of the Assembly of Experts on a day when the Assembly approved that the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC, alongside the Judiciary and the Ministry of Intelligence, would be one of the three references for the appointment of all managers in the country. The vote of 51 members of the Assembly of Experts for Jannati not only reveals the viewpoint of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic but also exposes the position of the security current dominating the IRGC. Independently of some reliable hearsay about the effective role of IRGC security forces in the victory of Mohammad Yazdi over Hashemi Rafsanjani in the Assembly of Experts elections (March 2015), one can confidently speak of a close connection between the IRGC Intelligence and the Jannati-supporting Experts and the hardline faction present in the Assembly. This is where the interests of the representatives of the Supreme Leader in the provinces are intertwined with the security projects of the IRGC Intelligence and the interests of the clerics approved by the Guardian Council. The output of the common strategy and perspective at the head of the Assembly of Experts becomes 'Jannati.' Jannati is the most realistic choice for the presidency of the Assembly, which does not allow the presence of clerics like Ayatollah Dashtgheib, Ayatollah Amjad, Mousavi Bejnourdi, Mohsen Gharavian, Soroush Mohalati, and even Seyyed Hassan Khomeini in its elections, as they are disqualified. He also embodies the Islamic Republic when, in its elections, six clerics appointed by the Supreme Leader filter and approve the candidates; and in the end, through behind-the-scenes political 'give-and-take,' the Secretary of the Guardian Council is forced and imposed as the last person on the 16-member list from Tehran to enter the Assembly. When the pressure to impose Jannati on the list of victorious candidates is so intense, it is not far-fetched that behind-the-scenes power lobbies in the Assembly and direct and indirect pressures lead to Jannati's selection. The 90-year-old political player is also the most realistic option for the presidency of an Assembly in which Rafsanjani—assessing the composition and direction of votes—does not even consider running for the competition and elections of its board. The media and propaganda assault from various authoritarian platforms against the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, under the pretext of his daughter Fa'ezeh's meeting with a Baha'i prisoner, had sounded the alarm for Hashemi and his companions days in advance. The head of the Assembly of Experts in the authoritarian system of the Islamic Republic is not a totalitarian (monopolistic) regime; it also does not possess a unified and homogeneous whole; as the composition of its executive or legislative power, with the presence of bureaucrats, technocrats, and quasi-democrats, is sometimes subject to certain changes. However, the output of the system based on the Guardianship of the Jurist manifests itself as an authoritarian regime based on an autocratic ruler. A government that employs the hard and soft power tools (from repressive forces to the judiciary and from the Guardian Council to state media) to maintain its undemocratic authority. Jannati's election as the head of the Assembly of Experts may serve the purpose of reminding political activists and citizens pursuing their civil and fundamental rights that without the formation of social forces and effective and active demands, and without the realization and emergence of social movements, the totalitarians see no reason to reconsider their abuse of power. In such a system, and considering the dominance of the security-military current aligned with the leadership at the core of power, the selection of anyone other than Jannati as the head of the Assembly of Experts would be unexpected. Especially since the first person of the system has repeatedly spoken in recent months about the necessity and importance of forming a 'revolutionary Assembly.' It should not be forgotten that the fifth Assembly of Experts is linked to the important issue of the Supreme Leader's illness; and Ayatollah Khamenei and the aligned hardliners (from the IRGC security forces to the clerics of the Assembly and the Guardian Council) have no desire to hand over the symbol and presidency of the Assembly to anyone other than the most aligned individual. When Sadegh Larijani, appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei, is in the Judiciary, and Mohseni Eje'i is its deputy and spokesperson; when Taeb is the head of the IRGC Intelligence and aligned security forces are involved in many political projects in the country; when Qassem Soleimani and the Quds Force are pursuing the realization of the Supreme Leader's strategic depth a thousand kilometers beyond Iran's borders; when state media is the mouthpiece of the authoritarians and the propaganda arm of a political ideology; and when Ahmad Jannati is the Secretary of the Guardian Council; what reason is there for anyone other than Jannati to sit at the head of the Assembly of Experts? Jannati; a reminder to activists Jannati's presidency of the Assembly of Experts serves as a warning to those political actors and civil activists who consider elections in the Islamic Republic as the end and totality of political activity and the only way of social activism. Jannati took his place at the head of the Assembly of Experts on a day when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was present as a guest at its opening ceremony. A person who, under normal and fair conditions, should be tried and held accountable for the consequences of his management for Iran. At the same time, just a few streets away from the Assembly of Experts, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, like Mehdi Karroubi, were enduring 1923 days of house arrest without trial. Jannati's presidency of the Assembly of Experts, with the approval of 51 representatives, makes evident the strength and determination of the totalitarians of the Islamic Republic to advance their political-ideological projects. This trend and course will continue without the effective intervention of social forces supporting democratization and human rights, including until the selection of another authoritarian leader. Jannati's election as the head of the Assembly of Experts, while not an extraordinary event in the political governance, displays the indifference of the majority of the Experts and the core of power to the demands of public opinion and the majority of Iranians. While this is not a sign of the end of reforms, it at least makes the re-evaluation of reforms based on elections significant. After Rouhani's victory in the presidential election of 2013 and also following the results of the parliamentary elections in March 2016 and even the output of the Assembly of Experts elections in Tehran, a kind of optimism and exaggeration regarding the electoral outcomes in the Islamic Republic proliferated. The notes do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their authors.