97-Year-Old Iranian Cleric To Serve 32nd Year In Key Office

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a centenarian cleric has become the oldest official in Iran, who is often the subject of jokes about his natural and political longevity.

Jannati was reinstated as the Secretary of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Guardian Council on July 19, giving rise to questions about his ability to continue his career for yet another year after 31 years of holding the same office.

The Guardian Council is in charge of endorsing parliamentary legislation after ascertaining compliance with the Sharia [religious law]. The body also vets the candidates of parliamentary and presidential elections to make sure about their adherence to the rules of Islam and the articles of the Iranian constitution. 

In fact, the Council has increasingly adopted just one criterion to judge the eligibility of candidates – complete obedience to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Jannati, a Khamenei confidant, is well known in Iran for having more than a dozen posts including the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts, a body that determines the country's next leader after Khamenei's death. 

According to Rouydad24, a relatively moderate news website in Tehran, Jannati, 97, is best known for his staunch opposition to the idea of reforms in Iran. He told Al-Ahram, Egypt's leading newspaper in 2000 that "reformism is an idea advocated by the British Empire, the United States and Israel."

The website added that many in Iran criticize Jannati's reinstatement, and believe that he should have been retired many years ago. However, conservatives in Iran know that his authority goes beyond his position as the Guardian Council Secretary. 

Jannati is one of the most loyal Iranian politicians to Khamenei. Iranian reformists have said at times that he makes the 12-member Council's decision single-handedly and the clerics and lawyers at the council, are fronts for Jannati, who is himself a front for Khamenei who does not want to accept responsibility for disqualifying election candidates he does not like. 

Although traditionally presidential candidates seek Khamenei's approval in private meetings, yet former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were both disqualified by Jannati and his Guardian Council in 2009 and 2017 respectively. Jannati usually does not even bother to present a valid reason as to why his council bars a tested regime insider from running in an election. The two former presidents had committed no crimes according to Islamic Republics courts but were simply disliked by Khamenei.

Jannati who was several years older than Rafsanjani, disqualified him for being "too old," and barred Ahmadinejad from running arguing that he might be good for other posts, but certainly not for the President's office. 

There are numerous jokes about Jannati and his old age, including the one that says he solemnized the marriage of Adam and Eve, and another one about God Almighty himself saying that when he created the world Jannati was already there! Jannati retold these jokes and several others on live TV a few years ago laughing loud. In fact, he is probably the only Iranian official who tolerates and even enjoys jokes about himself. 

He was born in 1926 in a small town near Esfahan as the only son and only child in his family. He entered the Qom Seminary quite late when he was 19. Before the 1979 revolution he was jailed three times (altogether for three months) and was exiled for another 3 years. One of his sons, Hussain, was executed for reportedly being a member of Mojahedin-e Khalq opposition group. Another one of his four sons, Ali, was culture minister under President Hassan Rouhani, but was removed from his post after reportedly being involved in a scandal. 

Apart from his post at the Assembly of Experts, he has never exposed himself to people's vote. And he owes his election to reformist former President Mohammad Khatami who put him and a couple of other hardliners on the reformists' election list based on a political deal. 

In 2005 and 2009 he supported Ahmadinejad's presidency and told voters that he believed he was Khamenei's choice. This was years before Khamenei revealed during a sermon that his ideas were close to those of populist Ahmadinejad. 

Jannati once made a fantastic claim that Iran's reformists received a one-billion-dollar assistance from the United States. When reformists asked him to present his evidence, he said he will submit it to the court, which he never did.

Some Iran watchers have said that Khamenei's interest in Jannati is because the Iranian leader wants the old man to endorse his son Mojtaba as the next ruler after his death. However, whether Jannati can outlive Khamenei is debatable. Jannati is 15 years older.