Former Iran president says government at crossroads

Washington, 31 July (WashingtonTV)—Former Iranian president Abdolhassan Banisadr said on Friday that the events surrounding the disputed 12 June presidential election have threatened the government and put the system at a crossroads.

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Banisadr wrote that the government had become “divided, delegitimized and grown increasingly more weak.”

Banisadr, who was Iran’s first president following the 1979 Islamic revolution, noted that the government’s traditional four sources of legitimacy had been “irretrievably undone.”

Those four sources were its competence in managing state affairs, its religious authority, its commitment to the country’s independence and its ability to provide a stable base of social support.

Banisadr said that the alleged vote rigging had placed the government’s ability to run the state’s affairs “under intense public scrutiny”, while the massive street protests in the wake of the election “removed the government’s political legitimacy.”

He continued that the government’s religious legitimacy had been waning for some time, with many prominent clerics questioning the principle of velayat-e faqih [the guardianship of the juris consult, i.e. the supreme leader].

He then referred to a sermon by supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at Friday prayers one week after the election, in which Banisadr said the leader “threatened a violent crackdown unless the official election results were accepted.”

“This removed the last vestiges of the regime’s religious legitimacy as well,” he said.

Turning to the government’s commitment to Iran’s independence, Banisadr said that US President Barack Obama’s policy of engaging Tehran had place the government in a “difficult position”.

“It can no longer portray itself as the defender of a sovereign independence against foreign intrusion,” he said.

Referring to the government’s key bases of support – the clergy – Banisadr said that that support has been replaced by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corp [IRGC], which he described as a “military-financial mafia”.

“The Revolutionary Guard now occupies the entire government and believes that the clergy’s task is not to run the country, but simply to lend its legitimacy to those who do,” said the former president.

Banisadr said that while the current political turmoil offers parallels with the unrest leading to the 1979 Islamic revolution, there are some important differences. He said that while the first actions of dissent 30 years ago came from outside the regime, the current opposition began within the regime itself. In addition, while the opposition movement is growing, it still needs time to spread throughout the country.

He concluded that the future of the country may depend on the outcome of a political deadlock between the government and opposition leaders, as well as the people’s resolve in contesting the election results.

Source: New York Times

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