Karrubi Attributes Today's Situation in Iran to Khamenei's Policies

Mehdi Karrubi, a leader of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, in an open letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, held him responsible for the current political, economic, cultural, and social situation in Iran and called for "creating the conditions for structural reform of the system." According to the Saham News website, close to Karrubi, he wrote in his letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published on Tuesday, January 30, "Given your level of presence and influence in the highest layers of power in the system, you must accept that the current political, economic, cultural, and social situation in the country is a direct result of your strategic and executive policies." Karrubi noted that he wrote this letter in response to the Supreme Leader's remarks on December 27. His letter was published in the final days of the seventh anniversary of his house arrest, along with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard. Karrubi, along with Mousavi and Rahnavard, has been under house arrest since February 2011, and requests to end this house arrest have not yielded results. Ayatollah Khamenei had stated in his remarks: "Those who had all the country's resources at their disposal yesterday and those who have all the management capabilities of the country today have no right to play the role of opposition and speak against the country; rather, they must be accountable... It is not possible for a person to be in charge of the country for a decade and then become a critic of the country in the next decade." Karrubi wrote in this regard: "For three decades, you have been at the head of the system and still speak from the position of an opposition. In these three decades, you have sidelined a significant part of the original forces of the revolution to implement your desired policies, and today you are facing the results of those same policies. Accountability is the duty of all officials of the system, and you, who have changed the functioning of institutions and organizations such as the IRGC, Basij, Guardian Council, revolutionary institutions, Friday prayer leaders, and state media according to your views and policies, should pay more attention to this important matter than others." He posed the question, "Does this type of interference in the current affairs of the country align with the framework of the theory of Velayat-e Faqih as envisioned by Imam or with what the drafters of the Constitution had in mind?" He added: "The interpretation that the official media of the government has presented of Velayat-e Faqih in recent years has no meaning other than the suspension of collective reason and the establishment of an individual autocratic system." This leader of the 2009 protests stated that "this approach has left heavy consequences behind" and added: "How do you expect to hand over this wild camel of power to another without purifying and structurally reforming the system? For a moment, imagine that this extralegal interpretation of the unchecked powers of the Velayat-e Faqih is placed in the hands of another individual after you, and that individual wants to impose their opinions and views on a nation without oversight and accountability. What a catastrophic image do you envision from that day?" In another part of his letter, which was written under house arrest, Karrubi criticized the Supreme Leader for having "turned the Assembly of Experts into a subset of the leadership office, whose only annual duty is to praise." He pointed out that "the Assembly of Experts has fallen into a vicious cycle" and added: "The Guardian Council, which before the constitutional revision did not even have the right to supervise the elections of the Assembly of Experts, has taken the life and death of this important constitutional element into its own hands, resulting in a puppet assembly whose only annual duty is to praise." Karrubi also accused Ayatollah Khamenei of having his presence in "the leadership position accompanied by the elimination of a significant part of the revolutionary forces" and added: "What dreams do some have for the Assembly of Experts that to realize those dreams, everyone must be sacrificed on this path?" In another part of the letter, Karrubi criticized the Supreme Leader for having "brought the IRGC and Basij into political and economic activities," adding that "the disastrous result of this is clear to everyone these days." Karrubi added regarding the result of the IRGC and Basij's entry into political activities: "The political behavior of some IRGC commanders has resulted in nothing but political instability, the creation of a despotic atmosphere, the elimination of people's sovereignty, and ultimately, the denial of the republic of the system." According to this leader of the 2009 protests, "the IRGC, without any oversight and accountability, is performing parallel tasks to the Ministry of Intelligence and violating the fundamental rights of the people." He wrote about the impact of these military forces' economic activities: "Their monopolistic behavior, stemming from the elimination of public tenders and illegal transfers of large and key industries, has created historical corruption." Karrubi posed the question, "What has been the insistence on the IRGC's interference in political, cultural, security, and economic affairs?" He demanded accountability from Ayatollah Khamenei "regarding the regrettable outcomes of the IRGC's interventions." Another part of Karrubi's letter to the Supreme Leader also pertains to the elections of 2004 and 2009. Referring to what he called the interventions of Mojtaba Khamenei, the Supreme Leader's son, in the 2004 elections, he wrote: "In the shadow of the monopolistic tendencies of influential individuals in the reformist movement, the weakness of the Ministry of Interior, and the inaction of the reformist government in protecting the people's votes, the IRGC and Basij acted under the leadership of your son in the first round to benefit one of the candidates." Karrubi added that he had previously written a letter regarding the "interventions" of Mojtaba Khamenei to the Supreme Leader, stating: "I wanted you to stop your son, but you did not, and in 2009 you saw what disaster he brought upon the system and the revolution during the electoral coup." He added that if he had criticized the second Imam of the Shiites at that time, "my more than five million votes in the 2004 election would not have dropped to the ridiculous figure of 300,000 in the 2009 election, while in 2004 I was first in eleven provinces and had received 450,000 votes in Lorestan province alone." Karrubi pointed out: "I have repeatedly emphasized in interviews, speeches, and letters my opposition to the interference of military institutions in politics, but they did their work in June 2009, and I also paid the costs of my public opposition to illegal ports and the interventions of the IRGC and Basij in politics and economics." He noted that the Supreme Leader had announced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory before the votes were counted in 2009, adding: "The day after the election, when the people were in shock from the fraud and engineering of the election, you issued a premature congratulatory message and sacrificed all the credibility of the system and the thousand-year reputation of the clergy for his stay in power." Karrubi added: "In the Friday prayer of June 29, instead of hearing the peaceful voice of the people's protests and respecting their demands, you spoke in a threatening tone and defended the clumsy engineering of the election. On that day, you considered your views and opinions closer to Mr. Ahmadinejad than anyone, even Mr. Hashemi, and harshly criticized us for calling him a liar and superstitious in the debates. In the last days of this government, while the way of governing the country had returned to before the Constitutional Revolution and unprecedented corruption had occurred, you once again reiterated your absolute support for their eight-year record and even claimed that we have not had such a government since the Constitutional Revolution." He raised the question: "Is it truly the position of leadership to elevate someone to power one day and then deprive that same individual of a simple right the next day?" Karrubi's reference was to the disqualification of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2017 presidential election. In another part of his open letter to the Supreme Leader, he wrote: "Would it not have been better in June 2009, when a large part of the people were protesting the announced results and the clumsy engineering of the election, to pay attention to their demands instead of resorting to violence and standing against them?" Karrubi referred to the Supreme Leader's remarks following the 2013 election, stating: "When Mr. Rouhani was elected with 24 million votes, you said: 'Irregularities in the election are not suitable for the Islamic Republic, and officials must seriously pursue these matters.' How do you respond to this clear contradiction?" He added: "In 2009, you confronted the people and spoke to them with firmness, dismissing the possibility of fraud altogether. But when your preferred candidate loses with a significant margin under the complete oversight and intervention of his supporters in the Guardian Council, you speak of serious action by officials against irregularities?" This leader of the 2009 protests stated that "the principlists have no share of the silent votes" and wrote: "Did you expect the people to interpret the emergence of 25% of the silent votes as a sign of enthusiasm for Mr. Ahmadinejad's presence or in support of his controversial and destructive programs?" Karrubi pointed out the disqualification of individuals such as Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hassan Khomeini, and Mohammad Javad Hajati Kermani, stating: "The position of leadership is not to disqualify Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani one day and Mr. Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Imam, who has been approved by several religious authorities, or a distinguished figure like Mr. Javad Hajati Kermani, a former member of the Assembly of Experts with revolutionary credentials and suffering during the struggle, who endured ten years of imprisonment, from participating in elections the next day." He also recalled Ayatollah Khamenei's lack of kindness towards Ahmad Khomeini, the son of the founder of the Islamic Republic, but only noted that he would "speak about this matter on another occasion." In another part of his letter, Karrubi referred to what he called "the undermining of the independence of the seminaries and the tarnishing of their status among the people due to the material and spiritual interventions of the government," urging the Supreme Leader "to end the interference of security and governmental institutions in the seminaries to preserve the religion and the dignity of Shia clergy." He pointed out that the space for religious authorities and concerned individuals has tightened due to the activation of a number of government students by the power institutions, adding that the seminaries "have been contaminated by the government's money, and alongside them, centers with sacred names receive astronomical amounts from the public budget." Karrubi also referred to the budget and the livelihoods of the people, stating that "economic cartels have become the private domain of certain individuals over whom no oversight is exercised," adding: "Some concerned individuals say that more than 50% of the country's wealth is in the hands of a few governing institutions that are not subject to any oversight. In such circumstances, it is natural that the masses and the lower classes of society, who were the main base of the Islamic Revolution, become a powder keg." Karrubi pointed out the demonstrations in 100 cities in Iran, which he claimed were "against oppression, corruption, and discrimination," viewing them as a "warning bell" that the Supreme Leader must "realize as soon as possible" and pay attention to the "livelihood concerns of the people." He stated that "poverty and unemployment are rampant in the country, and according to relevant officials, more than 10 million people live in absolute poverty," adding: "Changing this situation requires proper interaction and distancing from tension with neighbors and the international community." Karrubi deemed "this type of living" as "unworthy of the great and patient people of Iran" and called for the government and authorities to create an opening in the economic situation of the people as soon as possible, considering the concerns of the people. This leader of the 2009 protests noted that "the system these days is so on a slippery slope that it feels threatened by the gathering of several thousand people fed up with oppression and corruption" and added: "More than this wound deepens and more atrocities occur in prisons, I urgently request you to issue an order for the release of the prisoners from the recent crisis." According to reports, some of the detainees from the protests in January in Iran have lost their lives in prison. However, Iranian officials have claimed that they committed suicide or were killed outside of prison. These statements have drawn criticism from several activists and human rights organizations. Prior to Karrubi's letter, Abolfazl Ghadiani, a senior member of the Mojahedin-e Enghelab Islami Organization, in a statement held the Supreme Leader personally responsible for the protests in January, which he referred to as "the corruption and inefficiency of the Velayat-e Faqih apparatus." According to the Khabar Online website close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ghadiani also criticized reformists and their approach to recent popular protests, accusing them of capitulation and defeatism. According to Saham News, Karrubi concluded his letter by referring to the attacks against him, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and the protesting people since 2009, writing: "After eight years of insults, slander, and one-sided accusations, do you not want to provide an opportunity for a live and free debate between the parties in this dispute on national media, which belongs to the country, not individuals? I hereby express my readiness to participate along with my advisors in any debate related to the 2009 elections and the events that followed it.