Former Lawmaker Tells Iran's Parliament To Deal With Economic Crisis

One day earlier a journalist in Iran tweeted that Rouhani met with Ali Khamenei for one hour in recent weeks. So far there is no official confirmation or denial about the report.

Paris-based analyst Reza Alijani told Iran International TV on Monday that a group known as "the wise men" including Rouhani, former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, former conservative lawmakers Morteza Nabavi and Mohammad Reza Bahonar, and others, have warned Khamenei about the dire situation of the economy and called for reaching an agreement with the West, particularly the United States, before the economic crisis endangers the regime.

One more source who is in Iran related a similar account of the meeting.

The same group was assembled in late 1980s and urged Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini to end the war with Iraq and reduce tensions between Tehran and Washington to save the regime.

At the time, Khomeini disbanded the group but took their advice, admitting that it was a "chalice of poison" he had to drink.

Alijani told Iran International TV that Rouhani communicated the group's message to Khamenei in his recent meeting with him, but Khamenei also ordered the group to stop their meetings. However, it is not yet known if he accepted to consider the group’s suggestion. Nonetheless, Alijani observed that during recent days, Iran has been withdrawing from some of its hardline positions in the nuclear talks.

Alijani mentioned that Tehran has accepted to allow the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA to reinstall cameras in a nuclear workshop in Karaj. Tehran has also stopped mentioning its demand for lifting all US sanctions first for talks to continue, and its rhetoric about a US guarantee not to withdraw from the agreement again.

However, everyone in Iran, as well as politicians and negotiators abroad are convinced that it is Khamenei who makes the final decision about the nuclear issue and other political matters in Iran.

Alijani said that Iran is in a “state of emergency” as far as the country's economy is concerned. Nonetheless, Khamenei might insist on his hardline positions and may not accept a settlement although the West has agreed to lift the JCPOA-related sanctions and accepted to limit the discussions to Iran's nuclear program.

Under economic pressure, Khamenei has to make some sort of compromise and return the nuclear program to where it was before the 2018 US pull-out, but he might still choose the worst-case scenario of carrying on with his non-compromising positions, which would lead to “a catastrophe for the Iranian nation”, Alijani maintained.

In the meantime, Iran’s economy is in its worst situation since the 1979 revolution and the new Iranian government led by staunch hardliner Ebrahim Raisi has brought the economy to a standstill partly because six months after his election, neither he nor his government know who is in charge of the economy. His minister of economy is said to be on the verge of being impeached by the parliament for failing to sort out the crisis.

The meeting was disclosed by Mohammad Mohajeri, an editorial-board member of Khabar Online website, in a Sunday tweet. "Even if no news gets out about the content of the recent one-hour meeting of Hassan Rouhani with the Supreme Leader, the news itself bears an important message for politicians, whether [they belong to the] right, or left, or are hardliners, etc.," Mohajeri noted.

Mohajeri's tweet was immediately picked up by several publications and social-media pundits ready to pronounce the encounter a success or disappointment for Rouhani.

Some media detected a possible signal that Khamenei would appoint Rouhani to a leading position, such as chairman of the Expediency Council, a post assigned to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani after he stood down as president in 1997 and currently held by Sadegh Larijani, the former chief justice.

Under fire

Others saw the meeting as the leader recognizing the work of Rouhani, who has been under fire from principlists in government and parliament in recent weeks, with some parliamentarians arguing he should be put in trial.

Mohajeri did not give a date for the meeting. Javad Emam, a reformist politician, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that “sources close to Rouhani” had spoken of a meeting "a few weeks ago." Emam said to ILNA that the former president had told “friends” he was “very pleased with the meeting with the leader and their talks.”

Emam further suggested that the meeting − which he claimed Rouhani's critics had tried to prevent − could have related to talks in Vienna to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Rouhani regarded the agreement as the first step to a wider expansion of cooperation with European powers but was stymied when the United States left the agreement in 2018 and imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.

"The gentlemen [in power now] admit that the experiences gained from the previous talks [under Rouhani] are now being used and are very useful,” Emam said.

Drained coffers

Ali Hassanloo, editor of the reformist Eslahat Press website tweeted Sunday said Khamenei had not offered Rouhani a new position: "Firstly, Rouhani had requested the meeting with the Leader. And it wasn't a good meeting either and Mr Khamenei criticized him for the conditions in which the government was handed over [to new president Ebrahim Raisi], particularly drained government coffers. No position was on offer either although Rouhani expected to be given the chairmanship of the Expediency Council.”

There were reports that Rouhani felt “humiliated” during Khamenei’s last meeting with outgoing ministers, in July, which lasted 17 minutes during which Khamenei offered no words of thanks but spoke only of other matters such as "the goals and fundamentals of the Revolution.” Khamenei pointed out that Rouhani had erred in "investing hope in the West and trusting it,” especially in economic policy. “You lingered there and could not progress," Khamenei reportedly said.

A similar meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cabinet members in 2013 lasted five hours during which Khamenei praised the outgoing government, although his relations with Ahmadinejad had long been sour.

The deputy chair of parliament’s health committee, Mohammad Pakmehr, said on Saturday that authorities are taking steps so “even in exceptional cases, our women do not have to go to a male doctor.”

His remarks echoed a petition by the hardline news website Fars to prohibit the presence of male doctors and nurses from entering delivery rooms in Iran’s hospitals.

The petition has collected about 35,000 signatures in about 10 days and still is counting.

The petitions page of the Fars news agency, affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, is designed with a maximum target of 50,000 signatures that Fars claims it would be enough to make the case considered for a public discussion in Iran’s parliament.

The petition says it is to protect the rights of Muslim women of the Islamic Republic. “It is my right to give birth to my child in an environment free from sins”, read the last sentence of the text.

In November 2020, Iran’s Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa banning male surgeons from performing cosmetic procedures on women. Such religious decrees by top clerics are binding in Iran and must be followed by the country’s medical society.

The nationwide protests, which was called by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, started Thursday morning in 120 cities and towns all over Iran.

The teachers gathered in front of the parliament building in Tehran and the provincial offices of the education ministry to protest the parliament’s adoption of a discriminatory ranking plan.

Videos on social media show large crowds of protesters shouting slogans against the relevant authorities asking their resignation.

In many cities the rallies were held in a peaceful atmosphere while security forces and officials were present to prevent any anti-regime slogans, but some scuffles were also reported in Tehran and Shiraz where the demos continued to midafternoon.

According to reports, the prosecutor's office of the Fars province had sent a text message to people in the province, threatening them to stay away from Thursday’s protests.

Police often respond with heavy-handed tactics since protests have gained momentum all over Iran. Several teachers have been arrested during the rallies.

Education International and its member organizations have urged Iran to allow teachers protest for fair pay and to release those jailed.

Academic Taghi Azad Armaki in an interview said that Iranian politicians and political activists have largely not noticed the significance of this shift, although ultimately it is going to be dangerous for the government since economic and social demands relate to concrete issues.

Armaki added that the protests in Esfahan last month over lack of water and the nationwide protests by teachers demanding a long overdue pay adjustment and job classification are the examples of this shift.

However, in most economic protests it does take long for people to shift their focus to the regime and raise slogans against the very essence of the Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, he said that Iran's reformists have failed to represent the people before the government, partly because the conservative core of the regime has pushed them aside from the country's political dynamics and practically ignored their presence.

Other analysts have tried to explain other dimensions of the same problem. Conservative analyst Amir Mohebbian has said in an interview with the economic daily Donyaye Eqtesad, "We need to reconsider the concept of being revolutionary." He added that "Today, some revolutionaries look for what the people like and then they take a rejectionist stance against it."

Mohebbian was probably talking about Kazem Mousavi the lawmaker who said those who like sunglasses and western lifestyle should leave the country, or hardline journalist Hossein Shariatmadari who has said the government should ignore demands for a pay increase for government employees and further suggested that all social media outlets should be banned altogether.

Some reformists' view about what is going in the Iranian society also indicate that the situation described by Armaki is getting worse.Mohammad Reza Tajik has told reformist daily newspaper Sharq that Iran's reformists can no longer return to power by scaring the voters of their conservative rivals. People are looking beyond the traditional dichotomy of Conservatives versus reformists.

Tajik also pointed out that under current circumstances there is little or no room for reformists in Iranian politics. He said not only the ruling conservatives will not allow reformists to be politically active, but they even cannot tolerate some of the more or less independent or moderate conservative figures. He was possibly talking about the situation of Former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani who was barred by hardliners to run in the June 2021 presidential election.

According to Armaki, however, the only chance for reformists is to align themselves with various social groups and support their grievances, otherwise, they will be kicked out of the political circus if they want to continue their position as a political alternative to the current political system.

Speaking about hardliner conservatives such as Shariatmadari and Kazem Mousavi, Armaki said, "Hardliners do not want and cannot suppress the society's social and cultural demands. The most they can do is to fan short-lived controversies with their state of denial by saying that "There is no value in social media," or "Relations with the world are not important," or "We need to fight the corrupt West." He said the state of denial highlights the fact that hardliners cannot deal with these issues. But regardless of their denials, they have to face the consequences of some of those demands at one point, when the need to have good relations with the West, or supply water to Esfahan become urgent matters and endanger the regime.