Karimi Qodosi: 50 Percent of Parliament Representatives Seek the Collapse of the Regime

Javad Karimi Qodosi, a representative from Mashhad in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, has accused "50 percent" of parliament members of seeking the "collapse" of the Islamic Republic by supporting the leaders of the protests following the 2009 presidential election. This member of the Foreign Policy and National Security Commission wrote in a tweet: "50 percent of this parliament is seeking the collapse of the Islamic Republic. The leaders of the 2009 sedition sought the downfall of the Islamic Republic, and now today, 50 percent of the parliament members go to the podium and defend the leaders of the sedition." By "leaders of the sedition," he refers to Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have been under house arrest for years, and Mohammad Khatami, the former president, who faces security restrictions. The total number of representatives in the Islamic Consultative Assembly and its president is 290, of which 121 entered parliament with the "Hope" list supported by reformists. With the percentage announced by Karimi Qodosi, it seems that in addition to the Hope list, a number of the 65 independent representatives and 11 representatives from the "Voice of the Nation" list also fall into the group of representatives seeking the "collapse of the Islamic Republic." Abolfazl Soroush, another parliament member, reacted to this tweet by asking the Guardian Council to review Karimi Qodosi's qualifications. He deemed the recent claim by this member of the Stability Front as "against national interests and an insult to the people's intelligence." Alireza Rahimi, another parliament member from Tehran, also tweeted: "When half of the parliament members are falsely accused of seeking the collapse of the regime, it means you consider half of the nation, who are the backing of the representatives, as opposing the government." He addressed Karimi Qodosi, stating: "Breaking national solidarity stems from intellectual deviation and self-righteousness against the people. Defending the velayat-e faqih has become a tool for division among a group." This parliament member's tweet has also been met with protests from Twitter users, with many harsh comments under his post. A significant number of these comments are similar to this one: "All your analyses and conclusions are superficial and false." Some users have also stated that if Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, made a claim (regarding the existence of money laundering in Iran), he should provide his documents to the judiciary within a short period, but "people like Karimi Qodosi are free and unrestrained." One of the criticisms often raised about this Mashhad representative is that "he makes harsh statements and controversial claims against the government of Hassan Rouhani and reformists without providing evidence." He has stated that the moderation movement associated with Hassan Rouhani is the "root of deviation" and seeks to turn the "system of Imamate into monarchy." The website "Eghtesad News" published an article titled "All of Mr. Delvapas's Denials," stating that Karimi Qodosi's claims regarding issues such as "the arrest of a spy in the negotiating team by the Foreign Ministry," "Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's statements against the government," "the imitation of Hossein Fereydoun's voice and deceiving the Deputy for Women and Family Affairs by the Public Relations of the Women and Family Affairs Office," "the seven agreements between Iran and the U.S. by the Foreign Ministry in Esfand 95," and "Javad Zarif's correspondence with Rex Tillerson, the then U.S. Secretary of State" have been denied. In one of his latest claims, he tweeted that the meeting of Mohammad Khatami and several reformists with some clerics in Qom was to ask the clerics to encourage Ayatollah Khamenei to "issue a command for negotiations with the criminal America."