The Last Meeting of the Assembly of Experts Concludes Without Reporting on Khamenei's Performance

The last session of the fourth term of the Assembly of Experts was held on Wednesday, March 10, concluding with a "renewed allegiance" to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and without presenting a report on his performance and the institutions under his supervision. This two-day meeting took place about two weeks after the elections for the fifth Assembly of Experts, where the list supported by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Discernment Council, won the majority of votes in Tehran. In this election, Mohammad Yazdi, the president, and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi failed to enter the Assembly, and Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary of the Guardian Council, ranked sixteenth in Tehran. According to the Islamic Republic of Iran's state news agency, the final statement of the last session of the fourth Assembly of Experts referred to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran as the "final arbiter of disputes" and urged the "officials" of the Islamic Republic of Iran to "seriously" consider the leadership's directives and warnings in their verbal and practical positions, keeping in mind the red lines drawn in events such as the 2009 unrest and the ongoing threat of infiltration. Iranian officials refer to the protests of 2009 against the presidential election results as "sedition" and label the protesting candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as "leaders of the sedition." The statement from the fourth term of the Assembly commended those involved in the elections for the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts on March 26, as well as the holding of the "Velayat 94" military exercise, and condemned the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group by the Gulf Cooperation Council, describing it as an example of the hostile policies and interventionist actions of the U.S. and Israel. The Assembly emphasized the need to combat disorder and cultural conspiracies aimed at undermining the values of the revolution, and the necessity for caution in the implementation of the JCPOA and agreements aimed at lifting sanctions. The Saudi royal family was condemned for what was described as "inability to manage the Abrahamic pilgrimage" and the "barbaric attack on the defenseless people of Yemen." In the conclusion of their statement, the fourth Assembly of Experts renewed their allegiance to the Supreme Leader and wished him "health and increasing success." Members of this Assembly are scheduled to meet with the Supreme Leader on Thursday. The final statement of the fourth term of the Assembly did not address the issues raised during its two-day meeting, nor was there a report on the performance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the institutions under his supervision. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated in an interview with ILNA in December that the Assembly should not neglect oversight of the institutions under the leadership, adding, "We must at least address and follow up on the flaws of the institutions under the leadership with the leader to rectify those flaws." Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the president of the fourth Assembly, also stated on February 4 that "oversight of the continued conditions of the Supreme Leader" is one of the responsibilities of the members of this Assembly to ensure that "ijtihad and justice, capability, and management power of the leader" are examined and "it is clear that these matters have not been harmed" and that the conditions that existed at the beginning should continue. These statements come at a time when the Assembly of Experts has not provided any report on the performance of the Supreme Leader since its establishment. Most members of this Assembly have been appointed to various positions by Ayatollah Khamenei. According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Assembly of Experts can dismiss the Supreme Leader if he is deemed incapable. The new term of the Assembly of Experts is set to begin on May 27, 2016.