Official Reaction of the IRGC to Soleimani's Statement on Not Supporting Candidates

In response to the publication of a statement by Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, regarding the elections, the spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that any stance taken by IRGC commanders must be communicated through the public relations of the organization, and any statement outside of that is "valueless." According to Fars News Agency, Ramadan Sharif, the spokesperson for the IRGC, said on Friday morning, May 29, "According to the usual method of the IRGC, any such positions taken by commanders on various issues are announced by the public relations or spokesperson of the IRGC, and anything else is valueless and will be strongly denied." Qassem Soleimani or his office has not commented on this matter. The Telegram channel of the Iran newspaper, close to the government of Hassan Rouhani, published a statement from the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force on Thursday evening, emphasizing that Qassem Soleimani has not supported any candidates in the presidential elections. The statement also described "any misuse of photos and opinions" of Mr. Soleimani as "unethical." In the statement attributed to Mr. Soleimani, it was emphasized that he will "stand alongside the dear people for the continuation of construction and progress in Iran" as always. The statement attributed to Mr. Soleimani also announced that this IRGC commander, based on the views of Ayatollah Khomeini, the former leader of the Islamic Republic, who was "against the presence of military personnel in politics," would not become "tainted by political games." The IRGC spokesperson on May 10 had asked presidential candidates to refrain from "using the name and image of Qassem Soleimani for electoral propaganda." However, Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf mentioned Qassem Soleimani's name in their television programs for their benefit. For instance, Mr. Raisi said in a television program, "We are not afraid of slander and false advertisements, and like the martyr Beheshti, we will not be driven out of the field. If our brave commander, General Soleimani, got tired in his struggle, we will also get tired." Meanwhile, websites close to Hassan Rouhani recently published images showing the use of Qassem Soleimani's photo alongside Ebrahim Raisi in some campaign posters. These reports claimed that these campaign posters were prepared by Mr. Raisi's campaign headquarters. During the presidential election campaign, Hassan Rouhani repeatedly accused the IRGC of supporting Ebrahim Raisi. However, Ali Saidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the IRGC, announced that this organization would not interfere in the elections. This is despite Mr. Saidi having stated in 2012 that "the inherent duty of the IRGC is to logically and reasonably engineer elections." Critics of the Iranian government also consider a video of a speech by Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC commander published in 2014, as evidence of "fraud" in the 2009 presidential elections, citing his remarks that the IRGC's "concern and red line" was that reformists "would come to power again." However, Mr. Jafari stated in March 2017 that "no one among the IRGC members and commanders has the right to interfere politically and factionally in elections as in the past." Ali Motahari, a member of parliament, has also previously accused the IRGC of interfering in the ninth parliamentary elections, but officials of this organization denied the accusation.