Jannati, 'The Last of the First'

The Secretary of the Guardian Council, the head of the Assembly of Experts, describes Ahmad Jannati's election as the head of the Assembly of Experts, alongside a photo of the 89-year-old cleric. Other newspapers close to reformists or the government have also covered the election of the president and the board of the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts with often ironic headlines. For instance, the newspaper 'Qanoon' implicitly refers to Jannati's last place among the 16 elected representatives from Tehran with the headline 'The Last of the First,' but notes that in the competition for the presidency of the fifth Assembly, 'out of 86 votes cast, Ahmad Jannati received 51, Ebrahim Amini 21, and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi 13 votes,' thus 'Ayatollah Jannati became the head of the Assembly of Experts.' This newspaper recalls a statement from Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, saying, 'For that day,' meaning the day of choosing the future leader, 'there is no need for individuals to be presidents,' but warns that 'an important point that is not seen these days and political elites are not paying attention to is the disappointment of the social base that felt there should be tangible changes in this election.' Qanoon also mentions that 'while Mohammad Yazdi and Mohammad Taqi Mesbah were removed from the Assembly of Experts by the people of Tehran, several other Mesbahs and Yazdis have been elected by the people of the provinces. This easily undermined the equations of the faction that hoped for change in the structure of the Assembly, and they must think of another strategy to achieve their goals.' The newspaper 'Aftab Yazd' points to the absence of Hassan Khomeini at the opening ceremony of the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, who was disqualified by the Guardian Council under Jannati's secretariat during the Assembly elections. The newspaper writes: 'The young Khomeini did not come, Jannati became president.' Mohammad Sadegh Javadi Hesari, a journalist, in the editorial of 'Aftab Yazd' titled 'Why Jannati Became President,' writes: 'Perhaps part of Jannati's votes is due to respect for him and his old age,' and 'another part of Jannati's votes may also be a sign of a kind of consolation for him because he received a low vote from the people in the elections of the seventh of Esfand.' The editorial writer also points out more important points, stating: 'The election of Mr. Jannati reflects a kind of disunity and fragmentation among a group of representatives of the Assembly,' as when Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani 'as the first member of the Assembly under certain conditions does not accept to take on the presidency of the Assembly, many candidates perceive that it may not matter at the moment whether Mr. Jannati or Mr. Amini is the president.' However, the fact that Ebrahim Amini and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi ran against each other in the election for the presidency of the Assembly 'relates to the internal factions' disagreements within the Assembly, meaning that there is no necessary overlap among the members within the Assembly.' The newspaper 'Aftab Yazd' also emphasizes that 'when Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani does not run for the presidency, it is not without reason,' and it can indicate that 'he is aware of the status of the Assembly and its composition, and the faction of the Assembly members who have come from the provinces is different from the Tehran list. In any case, this time Hashemi Rafsanjani did not feel the need to risk himself for the presidency of the Assembly.' The government-aligned newspaper 'Iran' also wrote: 'From today until Khordad 97, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati will hold the helm of the Assembly of Experts. The 88-year-old Secretary of the Guardian Council yesterday ascended to the largest red chair of the Assembly of Experts with 51 votes from the fifth representatives. Ayatollah Jannati once ran for the presidency of the Assembly of Experts in 2007 after the death of Ayatollah Meshkini but lost to Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.' This newspaper refers to the statements of Hossein Ebrahimi, a member of the Society of Clerics in Tehran, who said that 'reformists' created a 'psychological atmosphere' against Ahmad Jannati during the Assembly elections and even staged a coup against Ayatollah Jannati, Mesbah Yazdi, and Mohammad Yazdi, and I am not surprised at all that Mr. Jannati received votes on the seventh of Esfand, but 'the election of Ayatollah Jannati' as president of the Assembly 'was a slap in the face to these psychological operations.' The newspaper 'Iran' simultaneously quoted Hassan Rouhani, the President of the Islamic Republic, as saying: 'I hope the Assembly will act more actively in fulfilling its duties and in its committees,' just as Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said: 'The election of the board of the Assembly was conducted in a calm, quick atmosphere, and without any disputes, and the composition of this board is very good.' Newspapers close to the principlists welcomed Ahmad Jannati's presidency of the Assembly of Experts. The newspaper 'Vatan-e-Emruz' close to the Steadfast Front with the headline 'Repeat Jannati' implicitly refers to Mohammad Khatami's electoral message with the refrain 'I repeat, vote for both lists,' but wrote: 'The decisive vote of the Assembly for the presidency of Ayatollah Jannati showed the realities about the results of the elections on the 7th of Esfand.' Mohammad Za'imzadeh, in a note in 'Vatan-e-Emruz,' wrote: 'Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati's presidency of the Assembly of Experts is a significant event and a meaningful, strategic defeat for the Hashemi Rafsanjani faction. The presidency of the Assembly is important. Although Hashemi Rafsanjani tried to downplay its importance last week, he knows very well how significant the events of Tuesday are.' The writer of this newspaper pointed out that 'only three months have passed since the exciting headlines and triumphant speeches and the playing of victory marches by the reformist faction in Esfand 94,' and the reformists said that 'with a little political maneuvering, an Assembly of Experts could be formed that would have no sign of the likes of Jannati and Mesbah and Yazdi,' but now 'aside from the strategic defeat of the Hashemi faction in the fifth Assembly elections, the mismatch between reality and the image that the media supporting this faction has constructed for its supporters and social base over these three months is a more important issue.' The newspaper 'Kayhan' also emphasized in its front page that 'the thorn in the eye of England has become the head of the Assembly of Experts,' stating: 'A look at the votes of the Assembly in this period and a comparison with previous periods indicates that the fifth Assembly is more revolutionary than previous ones.' Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the editorial of Kayhan with the title 'Why Ayatollah Jannati,' wrote: 'All members of the Assembly of Experts have emphasized the necessity of this Assembly having a revolutionary and anti-imperialist identity,' and therefore 'the election of some other candidates, including Ayatollah Amini, could not diminish the revolutionary and anti-imperialist identity of the Assembly of Experts, but since the extensive propaganda of external enemies and some tainted internal currents focused on preventing Ayatollah Jannati's presence in the Assembly and, of course, preventing his presidency of this Assembly, his election as president of the Assembly of Experts had a special significance for showing a fist to the enemies.' The editorial writer of Kayhan emphasized that 'it had to be shown to the spiteful external enemy that the Assembly of Experts is exactly moving in a direction and electing someone as president who you are worried about and trying to avoid, and if this necessity did not exist, there would not be much difference among the candidates for the presidency of the Assembly of Experts.' This newspaper wrote: Ahmad Jannati's election as president of the Assembly of Experts 'given the extensive and loud propaganda that external enemies and some tainted and bad-background internal currents have launched against Ayatollah Jannati, can have consequences for a group of politicians who are known for their political games.' The newspaper 'Javan,' close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also welcomed Ahmad Jannati's presidency of the Assembly of Experts with the headline 'Elected by the People, Trusted by the Experts,' stating: 'While long before the elections of the seventh of Esfand 94, a cold war wave against the revolutionary face of Ayatollah Jannati and efforts to remove him from the Assembly had explicitly taken shape, and while the same opponents of Ayatollah, while limiting the elections to Tehran and ignoring the provinces, provided victorious analyses of the elections, on Tuesday they faced the reality that not only was the election not held only in Tehran, but that the Tehran representatives were not even theirs.' This newspaper described the process of Ahmad Jannati's ascension to the presidency of the Assembly of Experts as 'a completely democratic process' and reminded that 'Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose supporters considered him the undisputed winner of the recent elections, did not enter the competition, and Ayatollah Jannati, alongside Mr. Amini and Hashemi Shahroudi, became president with 51 votes out of 86 from the members of the fifth Assembly.' The newspaper 'Javan' also noted that 'part of the lack of cooperation from the esteemed representatives of the Assembly is affected by the atmosphere that Mr. Hashemi's son has created in society in recent days,' referring to Fa'ezeh Hashemi's meeting with Fariba Kamalabadi, one of the imprisoned leaders of the Baha'i community, and wrote that Fa'ezeh Hashemi's insistence 'on the correctness of her behavior delivered the final blow to Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, and despite Mr. Hashemi condemning Fa'ezeh's behavior, the community of scholars and clerics could not digest this action by Mr. Hashemi's household and considered this behavior a kind of inadvertent mistake.' This newspaper close to the IRGC emphasized that 'Mr. Hashemi's words and guidance can no longer serve as a justification for many who previously judged based on past evaluations and services of Mr. Hashemi and accompanied him.' The newspaper 'Etemad' in its front page on Wednesday wrote 'The End of the Principlist Parliament,' stating that on Tuesday, the fourth of Khordad, the life of the ninth parliament 'which housed the most supporters of the previous government and the most critics of the current government, came to an end.' This same newspaper reported that on Tuesday, in the last working hours of the ninth parliament, the last bill of the ninth parliament regarding 'the triangle of inquiry for sensitive jobs' was passed amidst government opposition, which added 'the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the list of authorities for verifying the qualifications of individuals, namely the Ministry of Intelligence and the Judiciary.' According to this newspaper, with this approval, 'the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC is also obliged to express its opinion about those who either have dual citizenship or are organizationally affiliated with parties, organizations, and groups that are hostile, dissident, and illegal, and have been convicted of crimes against internal and external security and Sharia limits, or are among the suspects and perpetrators of espionage in favor of foreigners and have connections with foreign individuals that security and intelligence centers have explicitly prohibited,' as well as about 'the instigators and perpetrators of launching anti-Islamic satellite networks and websites against the official religion of the country and against the revolution and activists against the regime and their related elements and also activists in publishing and disseminating obscene materials in cyberspace.' The newspaper 'Qanoon' explicitly opposed the last bill of the ninth parliament, evaluating it as a revival of 'parallel intelligence' or 'intelligence 2' and wrote that Ayatollah Khomeini's wish 'was for the activity of the country's security and intelligence organization to be under the supervision of people's representatives,' and 'the creation of parallel security institutions will create intelligence and security problems.' Mohammad Hashemi, a legal expert, in a note in 'Qanoon' wrote that 'regarding the introduction of the IRGC Intelligence Organization as one of the three authorities, it should be said that this issue has no legal aspect but rather a political and security one that is not compatible with either the text of Islam or the text of the Constitution.' This legal expert pointed out that 'in this bill, it is stated that suspects and perpetrators of political espionage cannot be employed in sensitive jobs,' writing: 'It should be said that suspicion means nothing because suspicion means conjecture. If someone has committed a crime, they may even have been arrested, but since the principle is the qualification of individuals unless otherwise stipulated by law, a conviction must be issued against the person to consider them guilty.' The newspaper 'Shargh' reported on the issuance of 'a lawsuit against the Minister of Science of Ahmadinejad,' stating that 'a lawsuit has been filed against 17 officials related to illegal scholarships, demanding 52 billion rials in damages; however, perhaps the most famous person against whom a lawsuit has been filed is the Minister of Science at the time, Kamran Daneshjoo.' This newspaper quoted Mahmoud Sadeghi, one of the representatives of Tehran in the tenth parliament, stating that the prosecutor of the Court of Accounts 'has issued a lawsuit against 17 individuals related to the scholarship case, including the Minister of Science at the time, based on the guidelines of the Supreme Leader and also the minutes of June 11, 2015, in the 90th Principle Commission of the Parliament, regarding the financial aspects.' This newspaper reminded that Mahmoud Sadeghi, before becoming a parliament member, was an advisor to 'Reza Faraji Dana,' the former Minister of Science in Rouhani's government, and from 2013 to 2015 was 'the Director General of Inspection and Response to Complaints of the Ministry of Science' and has now reported that after the issuance of the lawsuit 'the advisory board must invite these individuals and review the case.'