Khamenei Praises Public Participation in Elections on March 1

The leader of the Islamic Republic urged the newly elected members of the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts to consider 'brave resistance against foreign interventions,' 'revolutionary responses to the plots of enemies and traitors,' and 'jihadist behavior in thought and action' as their 'permanent program' and to 'not deviate from it at any cost.' According to the state news agency IRNA, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday evening, March 1, described the public's participation in the elections as a 'general response to the call of the Islamic system' and expressed his 'gratitude' to the participants. He urged the elected individuals to adopt principles such as 'simplicity,' 'integrity,' 'prioritizing national interests over personal and factional demands,' 'brave resistance against foreign interventions,' 'revolutionary responses to the plots of enemies and traitors,' and 'jihadist behavior in thought and action' as their 'permanent program' and to 'not deviate from it at any cost.' Khamenei has repeatedly warned in recent months about what he calls 'enemy infiltration in decision-making centers.' On February 17, he stated, 'An English radio is instructing the people of Iran, the people of Tehran, to vote for this person and not for that person; what does it mean?' In contrast, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, had deemed the term 'English list' as 'an insult to the understanding and intellect of the Iranian people' before the elections. Khamenei's remarks may be a reaction to a report published on the BBC Persian website regarding campaigns that emerged on social media before the Assembly of Experts elections, urging voters to refrain from voting for Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi and several of the Supreme Leader's appointees, including Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary, and Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council. Based on results published by the National Election Headquarters on Sunday, March 1, Ahmad Jannati holds the fifteenth position, while Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Assembly of Experts, and Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, referred to as the 'spiritual father of the Stability Front,' have failed to make it onto the sixteen-person list for Tehran in the Assembly of Experts. Meanwhile, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the first candidate on the list of those who have so far entered the Assembly of Experts in Tehran, tweeted, 'No one has the strength to resist the will of the majority of the people; anyone the people do not want must step aside.' The Supreme Leader emphasized in another part of his message that 'progress does not mean dissolving in the stomach of global arrogance, and preserving national dignity and identity is only achievable through comprehensive and endogenous progress.' Khamenei had previously requested in his letter to the Iranian President for the approval of the Vienna nuclear agreement that after the lifting of sanctions, 'any import of consumables from America should be strictly avoided.' The Supreme Leader has repeatedly called for the implementation of 'resistant economy' in Iran, a term he and his close associates use to describe an economy that is not dependent on foreign countries.