Response to Rouhani's Protest: 'The Guardian Council Will Not Retreat Amidst Chaos'

Several Friday prayer leaders, including those in Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan, reacted on Friday, February 21, to the statements made by Hassan Rouhani the previous day regarding the disqualification of candidates for the parliamentary elections and the implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement, without naming him. The Friday prayer leader of Tehran stated that the Guardian Council 'will not retreat amidst chaos.' According to the news website Entekhab, Ahmad Khatami, the Friday prayer leader of Tehran, said, 'If an agent says I will not accept the disqualifications of the Guardian Council, that is called fraud.' He also emphasized that 'attacking the Guardian Council is not a matter of legal oversight, but rather self-centeredness, which the Quran considers worse than idol worship.' He warned against turning official gatherings and meetings into platforms for speaking 'against' the Guardian Council: 'Those who speak from the podium should be careful with their words, especially those who have responsibilities. If you insult, your subordinates will also gain the courage one after another.' Hassan Rouhani, the President, reacted on Thursday to the disqualification of a large number of candidates for the parliamentary elections, which he claimed had supporters numbering up to ten million, stating that 'the parliament is the house of the nation, not of a faction.' In his speech on Thursday, Rouhani emphasized that 'real qualification' is the responsibility and work of the people. Prior to this, several governors, including those of Tehran, Ilam, Khuzestan, and Hormozgan, had protested against the widespread disqualifications of candidates by the Guardian Council's subordinates. The Friday prayer leader of Mashhad stated: 'Participation in elections is not a right, but a duty.' One day before Rouhani's statements, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, implicitly defended the Guardian Council's actions in disqualifying candidates, stating that similar institutions exist in all countries and 'in no place in the world is someone who does not accept the system allowed into decision-making centers.' However, Hassan Rouhani stated in his speech on Thursday that candidate selection in other countries is done by political parties. Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, without naming Rouhani, called his statements 'wrong' and said that in Turkey, Egypt, France, Germany, the USA, and Russia, 'there are institutions that must verify the qualifications of candidates.' He also described the critics who label the Guardian Council as 'factional' and 'oppressive' as 'aligning with enemies.' The Friday prayer leader of Mashhad stated that political participation in Islam is 'not a right,' but rather 'a duty,' adding: 'If someone does not participate in the elections, it means they are not standing against the war with imperialism.' Several other Friday prayer leaders, including those from Shiraz and Qom, have also criticized the protests against the Guardian Council. For instance, Youssef Tabatabai-Nejad, the Friday prayer leader of Isfahan, said: 'The complaints of some about the Guardian Council follow a maximum rush to register for the elections; some said that there should not be strictness regarding the qualifications, and many were referred to the Guardian Council for review, which showed that this was a planned affair.' Meanwhile, besides reformists and figures like Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, some principlist clerics, including Abbas Vaez Tabasi, the representative of the Supreme Leader in Khorasan Razavi province, and Ghorbanali Dari Najafabadi, the Friday prayer leader of Arak, have also protested against the widespread disqualifications of parliamentary candidates. Regarding the nuclear agreement, several Friday prayer leaders in Iran reacted to Rouhani's statements about the Vienna nuclear agreement, criticizing that this agreement was achieved at a high cost for Iran. Meanwhile, Ahmad Khatami, the Friday prayer leader of Tehran, stated that 'the JCPOA lifted some, not all, sanctions.' According to the Tasnim news agency, he added: 'It is not correct to interpret this as a great victory; we paid a heavy price; which Iranian did not feel regret when seeing the scene of the removal of the core of the Arak reactor? Of course, this is a cost, but it is also a success.' Meanwhile, Youssef Tabatabai-Nejad, the Friday prayer leader of Isfahan, also stated that the Vienna nuclear agreement 'was not achieved easily' and should not be seen as 'a favor from America to the Iranian nation.' These statements from the Friday prayer leaders come as Hassan Rouhani announced on Thursday that with the implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement, 'all' Western sanctions against Iran would be lifted. He also emphasized that achieving this agreement 'is a very significant achievement and a valuable blessing that deserves gratitude, and we must know that if we do not express gratitude for the blessing, it will be taken from us.' However, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, also stated on Tuesday, January 29, in response to Rouhani's letter regarding the implementation of the Vienna nuclear agreement and the lifting of sanctions that 'we have paid a heavy price in this deal.'