A Creeping Coup to Take the Majlis

As differences between the Steadfast Front (Jebhe Paydari Engelab Eslami) – established by a group of former cabinet ministers of Ahmadinejad’s administration and with support from conservative cleric Mesbah Yazdi – and Principlist Group of 7+8 (aka 7+8 Committee) - centered around Mahdavi Kani – continue, the media in Iran has reported that a second coalition has been created in support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which is centered around a group of current cabinet ministers.

As this group joins many others in resuming its activities, observers trace Mesbah Yazdi’s footsteps and Ahmadinejad’s hidden hand in their formation.

This new group called the Front for Iranian University Associates (Jebhe Daneshgahian Iran) resumed its activities with speeches by minister of Islamic guidance seyed Mohammad Hosseini, minister of science Kamran Daneshjoo, Majles speaker deputy Shahabedin Sadr, and Ahmadinejad’s legal advisor Gholam-Hossein Elham.

Although this group was originally founded in 2002, its first gathering took place 7 years later in 2009, in Pars hotel in the city of Mashhad. This year witnessed the third gathering of the front at Shahid Beheshti University. The leaders of the group visited Ahmadinejad on October 23 this year to reaffirm their commitment to him. The leadership members of the group are mostly senior managers and their deputies from two ministries of science and Islamic guidance.

The leaders of the group presented the views of the current Principlists (a group proclaiming to uphold the original principles of the 1979 revolution) regarding the upcoming elections in these words: “We accept the 7+8 Committee but disagree with its structure and some members. Some of its members currently lack the stature to be in this committee. The creation of this committee and the unification of Principlists through this group under the charter of principalism are accepted by this group but the composition of 7+8 must be reformed so that individuals per se are not members but that groups are represented in it and have a voice based on their weight.”

The positions of this group are very similar to the political views of the Steadfast Front which itself is one of the Principlist groups prepared to participate in the upcoming elections created with the blessings of Mesbah Yazdi and with the financial support of Sadegh Mahsooli. The members of this group too are former cabinet ministers and associates of Ahmadinejad and some Majlis deputies who have supported him. Roohollah Hosseinian, Morteza Agha-Tehrani, Gholam-Hossein Elham, Sadegh Mahsooli, Bagher Lankarani, Ali-Asqar Zarei, Hamid Rasai, Mehdi Kootchakzadeh, and Kowsari are among its founding members.

The membership of Sadegh Mahsooli in the 7+8 Committee and the departure of Ali Larijani and Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf are among the conditions demanded by the Steadfast Front for its participation in the Principlist front. Mahdavai Kani did not accept these conditions resulting in the absence of cooperation between the members of the front with the 7+8 Committee.

Earlier, Gholam-Hossein Elham had called the Steadfast Front to be a “pro-government” front and had said, “In view of 7+8 Group, the Steadfast Front is considered a special potential force … in the eight Majlis, the Principlists along with the power and capabilities of the government led by Mr. Ahmadinejad managed to win the elections. Today, 7+8 group has set the government aside while the government continues to enjoy high ratings in election polls. If this potential and the power of the government is ignored by the Principlist front, then these opposing groups will face unusual circumstances.”

Members of the Steadfast Front who consider their opponents to be opposing Ahmadinejad’s administration and call them the “silent seditionist” (sedition is the term the Iranian rulers use for those who protested the 2009 presidential election that returned Ahmadinejad to the presidency) have said, “We will not succeed with defeated individuals. Our elders must step aside and sacrifice themselves for the regime so that the management guard of the country changes hands.”

Looking at these groups one can see Mesbah Yazdi’s footsteps. He is the cleric who supported Ahmadinejad in the 2005 elections who is viewed as the “spiritual father” of the administration.

Nowadays, Yazdi is present in many political-cultural groups by either personally participating in them or using his supports and students to run the organizations. Moasese Amozeshi va Pajooheshi Imam Khomeini (Khomeini Educational and Research Institute), Anjomane Farogh-al-Tahsilane Moasese Amoozeshi va Pajooheshi Imam Khomeini (the alumni of the same group), Daftare Pajooheshhaye Farahangi (Office for Cultural Research), Kanoone Toloo (the Dawn Center), Garargahe Farhangie Ammar (Ammar Cultural Center), and now the Steadfast Front are among these groups where Yazdi runs the show.

Among individuals who are active in these groups one can name Morteza Agha-Tehrani, seyed Ahmad Rahnamai, Ghasem Ravanbakhsh, Mohammad-Nasser Saghai Biria, Hossein Jalali, Ali and Mojtaba Mesbah Yazdi, Mahmoud Dehghani, Abolhassan Haghani, seyed Mahmoud Nabavian and others. Parto publication is one of the media arms of this view. Alireza Panahian, Saeed Ghasemi, Vahid Jalili, Mohammad-Mehdi Mandegar, Mehdi Kootchakzadeh, Hamid Rasai, Nader Talabzadeh, Hossein Yekta, Hassan Abbasi, Ali Samari, Saeed Hadadian, Hossein Alahkaram, Hassan Abbasi, Gholam-Hossein Elham, Mohammad Bagher Zolnoor, Mehdi Taeb, among others, are among the activists in these groups.

Many of these groups are affiliated to the Khomeini Educational and Research Institute. All of their charters specifically say that all their decisions must be approved by the head of the institute (a post held by Yazdi).

With the creation of these groups, concerns by Principlist about the presence of Ahmadinejad’s associates in the upcoming elections have increased and have resulted in sharper and more intense verbal and media attacks by the two sides.

It should be noted that the creation of the Steadfast Front was met with criticism by the Principlists right from the beginning with some declaring that the new group was a dangerous front.

Mohsen Gharavian, a student of Mesbah Yazdi, has said that the views of the group are “extremist, harsh and hardline” while Hamid-Reza Katoozian, a Majlis member, called the front a “Mashai Front,” a reference to the controversial presidential aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashai. “The fact is that the Steadfast Front is Mashai’s group,” he said.

Earlier last week, Morteza Agha-Tehrani, the former ethics teacher of the administration and the secretary of the Steadfast Front, had told a group of Principlists, “If you really want a good person to go to the Majlis, do not steal votes, do not buy votes, and do not engage in electoral fraud. It is better to fail than for a liar to pass.”

Differences within the Principlist camp erupted over the dispute that ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad developed over the minister of intelligence Heidar Moslehi earlier this year.

Some Principlists had earlier said that Ahmadinejad and Mashai had planned to have at least 150 Majlis seats. Mesbahi Moghadam too had said, “The president had launched an indirect process to enter the elections whose purpose was to install pro-president representatives in the Majlis.”

Asadollah Badamchian, the number two man in the Motalefe Eslami (the Islamic Coalition Party) and a criticizing member of the Principlist faction had expressed his concerns saying, “It is possible that some associates of the government, such as governors, governor generals, and other executive appointees would engage in unlawful practices in the elections. The government and particularly those close to the president must refrain from activity that can influence the outcome of the upcoming ninth Majlis election.”

In fact, the recent changes in governors and governor generals in the provinces have been criticized to be election driven. All these concerns and events resulted last month in the creation of a special Majlis committee to watch on the government’s activities regarding the upcoming Majlis elections. But other than the announcement of the formation of this committee, no other news has been published about its activities, composition or plans.

Source: Rooz Online