Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday heaped praise on the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as a way to lay down the law for his “moderate” successor, President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian.
The powerful Iranian military has announced its readiness to cooperate with Pezeshkian, which can be understood in the following sense: he You better be prepared to work together they.
Pezechkian is Declared A runoff election against hardline cleric Said Jalili took place on Saturday, and turnout was significantly higher than in the first round a week earlier, with Mr Mohammed winning by three million votes over Mr Jalili.
Iranian army chief of staff Mohammed Baqeri said on Sunday Praised He described the high voter turnout for the runoff election as a “glorious” victory for the Iranian regime and a sign of national unity.
This will no doubt sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to Iranian opposition leaders and human rights activists. advice They called on their supporters to boycott the elections because low voter turnout would embarrass the regime more than so-called “moderates” defeating the ayatollah’s protege.
Iranian voters decided that Pezeshkian had a good chance of winning, and turnout in the second round of the vote soared, but it quickly became unclear what reforms they wanted from a reformist president. While the supreme leader holds real power and controls most of Iran’s wealth, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the theocratic wing of Iran’s military, controls much of the country’s foreign policy and has expressed a willingness to reform Iran. Kill the people People who want big changes to the system.
Supreme Leader Khamenei Nostalgic Memories Raisi’s government’s announcement on Sunday, seen by most Iranians and likely by almost all of Pezeshkian’s voters as a complete disaster, is hard to interpret as anything other than a warning to the reformist president-elect.
Khamenei praised Raisi for demonstrating submission to Iran’s clergy through his “religious and revolutionary stance.”
“Martyr Raisi’s hallmarks were hard work and round-the-clock effort,” Khamenei said, praising the late president as a fighter against corruption. Raisi was not “martyrized” in any meaningful sense. Died The senseless helicopter crash that occurred in May.
Khamenei said another “distinctive feature” of Raisi’s government was “publicity,” meaning transparency, and that Raisi’s actions “should serve as an example for all authorities.”
“Martyr Raisi was an extremely patient and tolerant person. His character can be used as a management model for the entire country,” he said.
Pezeshkian ran on a platform of reversing many of Raisi’s policies, but not as many as one would expect from a true reformer or moderate, and he received energetic support from Iran’s previous “moderate” government, led by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who engineered the 2015 nuclear deal with U.S. President Barack Obama. Khamenei’s comments praising Raisi as a model for modern Iranian leadership sent a strong signal that the Supreme Leader expects the new president to keep his reform agenda to a minimum.
General Bakeri similarly peppered his congratulatory message to the new president with unreserved hints about what the Iranian military expects from him.
“We hope that by further strengthening the defensive capabilities of the armed forces, we can make a great leap forward in establishing the authority, deterrence, security and defense of the sacred ideals of the Islamic Republic and our holy land,” Baqeri said.
“I hereby announce that the Ministry of Defense’s scientists and military personnel in the defense and scientific and technological sectors are ready to fully cooperate and protect the achievements of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said in a statement.
Pezechkian said in his victory speech. Said He said he would “push ahead with reforms” to make government more accountable, and acknowledged that even voter turnout, boosted by his surprise victory, was still too low.
“The time for dialogue has come in Iran. The government should know what you are saying and why you have not come,” he told apathetic voters.
Pezeshkian said he wanted “dialogue and constructive exchange with the world,” which would be a major change from the situation in which Iran, through its proxies, has tolerated indiscriminate terrorism and piracy since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. During the election campaign, the new president said he wanted further negotiations with the West and the easing of international sanctions, a view echoed by his biggest supporter, Foreign Minister Zarif.
Everything Khamenei and Bakeri said the next day directly contradicted these points. They seemed satisfied that the increased voter turnout in the runoff election had given their regime a semblance of legitimacy, and showed little interest in what Pezeshkian had promised to do if he took office.
Outside Observer I got it. Pezeshkian has never promised any reforms that would truly challenge the Iranian regime and has emphasized his loyalty to Khamenei; otherwise, Iran’s theocratic Guardian Council would never have approved his candidacy. One sign that Pezeshkian has little intention of “reform” is that he does not appear to have prepared a list of senior officials to carry out his policy agenda, even though he certainly knows that the hard-line majority parliament would staunchly resist any truly reform-minded candidate.
