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Dissension in the Ranks of Iran’s Conservatives | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech as he stands under portraits of late founder of Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) and supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali khamenei (R) in this February 10, 2013, file photo. (AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI)


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech as he stands under portraits of late founder of Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) and supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali khamenei (R) in this February 10, 2013, file photo. (AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech as he stands under portraits of late founder of Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) and supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali khamenei (R) in this February 10, 2013, file photo. (AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI)

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the hardline supporter of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has decided to lead a new political faction called the Islamic Revolution Resistance Front. The announcement comes in the run up to Iran’s presidential elections, to be held on June 14. That group is an ultra-conservative sub-faction of the principalist faction that joined and rallied behind Ahmadinejad for his both election campaigns in 2005 and 2009.

The faction announced on Sunday, April 21 that their choice for the presidency is Bagher Lankarani, the former health secretary in Ahmadinejad’s cabinet.

Mesbah Yazdi, whose ultra-orthodox ideology undermines the role of electorate and democratic system of governance, has now put himself in the front line of political rivalry with other arch supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei.

The chasm between the conservative factions has left the so-called principalist ruling party divided between three branches. These are the Coalition for Progress led by Ali Akbar Velayati, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Haddad Adel; the Islamic Revolution Resistance Front led by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, which has now nominated Bagher Lankarani as his candidate; and the government faction led by Ahmadinejad that supports Rahim Mashaei’s candidacy. The latter faction has so far refrained from nominating him, fearing his outright rejection by the Guardian Council.

The majority of political figures in the Resistance Front are hardline politicians. It includes former ministers in Ahmadinejad’s cabinets, in particular the former health secretary Bagher Lankarani and the former energy secretary Parviz Fattah, who were both sacked by Ahmadinejad, allegedly due to their disagreements with Rahim Mashaie’s prominent position in the government.

The most well-known figure in the Resistance Front is Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator. He has also been subject to speculation over his intention to run for office, although a spokesman for the Resistance Front, Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh, confirmed to the Fars news agency that “Jalili has declined the invitations” to run.

Jalili’s decision not to compete for the presidency opens the way for Bagher Lankarani to be nominated by the Resistance Front as “the most eligible candidate,” as he was described to the gathering attended by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi to announce Lankarani’s candidacy on Sunday.

Mesbah Yazdi came into the spotlight during President Khatami’s tenure for his harsh and uncompromising opposition to any reform agenda. He has become a dividing element not only on political issues, but also across Iran’s Shi’a seminaries and the wider clerical establishment.

He runs an influential educational institution in Qom, the Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, which provides various training courses and degrees for a large number of students.

He is also a member of the Assembly of Experts, which appoints the supreme leader and supervises his conduct under powers granted to it by the 1979 constitution. In the Assembly of Experts, Mesbah Yazdi leads a faction that opposes more moderate circles that have a loose loyalty to the former reformist president Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Two years ago, Rafsanjani, then was head of the Assembly of Experts, declined to nominate himself and instead paved the way for his old friend and ally, Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, to take the chairmanship in an implicit attempt to prevent Mesbah Yazdi from competing with him for the position.

Mesbah Yazdi’s aspirations of becoming a dominating figure in the Assembly of Experts have so far been blocked. At the same time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, once his most cherished supporter, seems to have disappointed him by sticking to Rahim Mashaei as his preferred candidate and moving away from the core revolutionary discourse.

Chances for Resistance Front’s candidate, Bagher Lankarani, are effectively nil according to various polls, but Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi’s political front has decided to enter the competition with the low-profile but seemingly pious candidate.

Perhaps the point Ayatollah Mesbah intends to make is not so much about the presidency per se, given that he has repeatedly downplayed the role of elected officials in Iran. Instead, he might be trying to consolidate his religious and political power base as he sets himself up for the highest office in the land—not merely the presidency.