Shahrudi to Continue as Head of Experts Assembly

Rooz Online

Last Tuesday Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Leadership, the body that constitutionally is tasked to proclaim the country’s top leader, held its 16th session of its fourth term and once again restated caretaker senior cleric Hashemi Shahrudi as its de facto chief. He is officially the deputy chairman of the body but has been running the clerical body since his boss, another senior cleric Mahdavi Kani, was hospitalized because of a stroke last year. There had been reports earlier about the possibility of electing a new head to replace Kani, but Shahrudi’s remarks last week indicate that he will continue to lead the assembly from his second-in-command position.

This arrangement seems to please both the moderate and the hardline clerics in this 88-man assembly as they continue to keep an eye on Hashemi Rafsanjani as a possible acceptable to both factions.

Shahrudi is a veteran of Iranian and Iraqi politics. He became a member of the powerful Guardian Council after his term as the head of Iran’s judiciary ended. This is an added portfolio to being the deputy chair of the Assembly of Experts. In addition he is also a member of the State Expediency council and the head of the special board set up to resolve conflicts among the three branches of Iran’s state branches.

After being chosen to lead Iran’s judiciary, Shahrudi, who at one time was the spokesperson for the Iraq Supreme Assembly, tried to conceal and downplay his former affiliations with Iraqi Shiite militants. But in recent years and especially after becoming a senior cleric – a mujtahid – he seems less ambitious and so has once again cozied up to his former Iraqi allies.

In 2011 for example, after Shahrudi travelled to the city of Najaf in Iraq, a local newspaper claimed that the country’s Dawa party had decided to elect Shahrudi as its spiritual leader. Its reasoning was that Shahrudi was a disciple of Mohammad Bagher Sadr, the founder of the Dawa party. His close ties with Iran’s supreme leader are noteworthy as are his closeness to Muqtada Sadr, Ibrahim Jaafari and Nouri al-Maleki - all important reasons for his positions and influence in Iranian and regional politics.

A photograph in 2012 showed Shahrudi next to Muqtada Sadr, the head of the Jeish al-Mahdi Iraqi militias, attesting to his connections and indicating that he had in fact expanded his ties in Iraq even further. His recent statements and announcements about the crisis in Iraq have given rise to views that he may be intending to play an even greater role there.

Three months ago Shahrudi issued a call to Iraqi Shiites to unite to rid the country of infidels through the country’s parliament. When Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maleki ultimately stepped down in favor of Haider al-Abadi, Shahrudi sent a congratulatory message and praise to both men, and emphasized the role of the country’s armed forces in the face of ISIS attacks.

In Iran, there was a time when some viewed Shahrudi as the future successor to ayatollah Khamenei. Even though such reports were never confirmed, they do indicate the influential position he enjoys in the Iranian political system.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency there were reports that he had cozied up to the ex-president but it was noteworthy that he was absent in the Guardian Council meeting that disqualified Hashemi Rafsanjani’s credentials to run for the 2013 presidency. Since Rouhani’s presidency he has defended the president’s Rights of Citizenry Charter.

Prior to last week’s Assembly meeting, Shahrudi visited Kani in hospital and talked to reporters after it, an unprecedented gesture for him. Expressing satisfaction for events since Rouhani has assumed Iran’s presidency, he said there had been no complaints to Iran’s supreme leader of differences among the branches of the government, contrary to the situation when Ahmadinejad was president.

Regarding the future of the Assembly of Experts, he said that new leadership and officers will be elected in March 2015 when the current terms expire. He added that there had been a proposal to keep the current leadership in place until then, which would be voted on by the full assembly. His remarks strongly indicated that elections for a new presiding board for the Assembly are now on hold and that he will continue to head the assembly, something that seems to be favored by Rafsanjani as well.