The Importance of the Future Assembly of Experts

Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts' board, states that reformists will not succeed in forming a powerful minority in the next Assembly of Experts. In this regard, Mahdi Mahdavi Azad has answered questions from Radio Farda: The current sensitivity, which has intensified, seems to be driven by the faction of Mr. Hashemi, who have plans to seize the current Assembly's board or at least prevent individuals like Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, Mr. Mohammad Yazdi, Jannati, or Ahmad Khatami from reaching the board. Additionally, they are planning for victory in next year's elections. The Assembly of Experts elections will be held next year in 1394 (2025) and the next elections in 1402 (2023). Significant events will occur in the next eight years, from the potential appointment of the future leader of the Islamic Republic to overseeing the performance of the Supreme Leader. Therefore, the struggle over the future of the Assembly of Experts is much more intense than the struggle over the parliament or even the government, although it seems to be more behind the scenes. Mr. Ahmad Khatami mentioned that the Constitution does not include the issue of oversight over the leadership, and the main point is to ensure continuity and the conditions of leadership. To what extent do Mr. Khatami's statements align with the realities of the Constitution? The Constitution emphasizes that one of the duties of the Assembly of Experts is to oversee the person of the Supreme Leader. This is an undeniable specification of the Constitution. Furthermore, the Constitution states that the Assembly of Experts has the duty to elect a new leader in certain cases, indicating that they can select a new leader (beyond the issue of the previous leader's death) when they determine that the previous leader is no longer qualified, for example, lacking justice or management skills. This shows that the Constitution insists on oversight of the leadership both explicitly and implicitly. How can one not oversee someone and then determine whether they possess the conditions of leadership, such as justice? What individuals like Yazdi, Jannati, Mesbah Yazdi, Ahmad Khatami, or Alim al-Huda in Mashhad say is essentially a distortion of the Constitution and an inversion of its principles. They aim to implement their interpretation of absolute clerical rule and ultimately establish their ideal of an Islamic government, rather than an Islamic Republic.