Khodousi: Rouhani said he cannot pay both the Army and the IRGC

Javad Khodousi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, claimed that Hassan Rouhani stated he cannot pay both the Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "salaries." This member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission made this claim in a post on his personal website. Khodousi mentioned that Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, wrote a "letter" to Hassan Rouhani requesting "allocation of budgets for the armed forces." He added that Baqeri's "status" is not less than that of the President, and in this letter, he wrote to Rouhani that "problems will arise." According to this representative, instead of writing under Baqeri's letter to Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, to address Baqeri's request, stating that "the defense issue is important, report the results to me," Rouhani wrote that the budgets of the armed forces are "spent on undermining the government." This conservative representative stated that the President wrote in the "paraf" of this letter: "The budget of the armed forces, according to the Constitution, must be separated from the budget that is wasted on strange and absurd cultural and propaganda groups. A large part of the budget of the armed forces is spent on undermining the government instead of defending the country, which is legally and religiously forbidden." Without indicating how he obtained this letter, he addressed Rouhani, saying, "Your performance is what ruins you, not the positions of people like us and spontaneous cultural groups." Khodousi further quoted "members of the board of directors of the Joint Commission of the Parliament" as saying that Hassan Rouhani told them in a meeting: "I cannot pay salaries to two military forces in the country, both to the IRGC and the Army, both to active and retired personnel and service bonuses." This parliament member considered the "removal" of the IRGC as a demand of the "Western system" and sarcastically added to Rouhani that "they also say that you must eliminate one of the two armies." Javad Khodousi has made controversial statements in the past, which have sometimes provoked reactions from some government members. However, as of the time of this news publication, the President or anyone from his cabinet has not reacted to Khodousi's statements. On May 2 of this year, a knowledgeable source in the presidential office denied Khodousi's claims about the "support" of several members of this institution for the Telegram channel of the "Amadnews" website, stating that these remarks would be subject to "legal follow-up." IRNA reported, citing this unnamed source, that the presidential office considers Khodousi's recent statements as "false, baseless accusations, and undocumented." Khodousi had claimed that the Ministry of Intelligence of Hassan Rouhani's government was in contact with the "Amadnews" Telegram channel, and in this regard, several people had been arrested. He did not provide any evidence to support his claims. The Iranian Foreign Ministry had previously described his statements regarding Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister, attempting to contact the Donald Trump administration as "unconsidered and unjust," adding that his remarks "do not even merit denial." On August 17, the President's office described this representative's comments about the "dual nationality" of some government officials and the "foreign nationality" of the spouse of one of Rouhani's proposed ministers as "a source of shame and disgrace to the position of parliamentary representation" and "a repetition of criminal acts against national interests and security." The President's office called these remarks a "manifest crime" and requested the prosecutor and judiciary to take action against Khodousi.