Iran's Neglected Reformists Turn Their Back To Elections
While Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei says he wants a high-turnout election in March, his followers show no intention to give a fair chance to their rivals, the Reformists.
While Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei says he wants a high-turnout election in March, his followers show no intention to give a fair chance to their rivals, the Reformists.
In recent days, several politicians have suggested that the Reformists, who have been cut out the previous two elections, should nevertheless urge the apathetic voters to go to the polls.
Reformist groups feel the call for their participation is meaningless as nearly all their well-known candidates have been already disqualified by the Interior Ministry in the first round of a non-democratic vetting scheme. While the interior ministry can disqualify any person without offering a convincing reason, the Guardian Council takes a second stab and can equally disqualify more candidates.
Former lawmaker Morteza Alviri, a Reformist politician, told Khabar Online that key Reformist politicians such as former President Mohammad Khatami, Former Public Prosecutor Mohammad Khoiniha and former Interior Minister Abdollah Nouri's silence about the elections is in fact their protest action against the current situation.
Alviri, who served in parliament twice in the 1980s, explained that many prominent Reformist figures are reluctant to register their candidacy due to skepticism about the biased vetting system controlled by ultraconservatives. He added that the exclusion of Reformists in recent elections has left them disheartened. Despite Khamenei's call for political participation, Alviri believes that any Reformist who advocates for it risks damaging their reputation.
What Alviri did not mention is that, while Khamenei mildly criticized the Interior Ministry for disqualifying Reformist figures like the current MP for Tabriz, Massoud Pezeshkian, he refrained from advising the Guardian Council to approve the qualifications of any remaining Reformist candidates. This is likely because there are no significant Reformist candidates left for the Guardian Council to vet.
Other pro-reform political figures, such as Mohsen Hashemi, who say they are waiting for the Guardian Council's decision, belong to centrist parties such as the Executives of Construction.
These parties were not that popular with voters in the previous elections when they won less than 3 percent of the votes and the previous Presidential elections in which their members and supporters refused to work for the party's candidate former Central bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati. The former leader of the Executives of Construction Party Hossein Marashi has told the press that it was a mistake not to vote for Hemmati. it was a mistake that led to a major defeat for the party."
Some moderate figures such as former President Hassan Rouhani have said that if the majority of the people refuse to take part in the upcoming elections, that would be a great gift to hardliners who currently control the government and the parliament. However, Rouhani who appears to be heeding Khamenei's call for advocating participation, is said not to have enough suitable people around him to fill the list of 30 candidates for Tehran. His party members said he might give a list of only 16 moderate politicians.
Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami in previous years played a key role in encouraging the people to go to vote, but as Alviri has pointed out, the people are no longer so naïve as to listen to such advice. Khatami who is also sulking with the regime that has ignored him for so many years, is now even questioning the regime's legitimacy. He said in a recent statement to a women's human rights gathering in Tehran: "A political regime can be justified only when it can be reformed, and that is when it respects human dignity and gender equality."
The Quds Force team responsible for recruiting Afghans includes Hossein Rahmani, Hossein Rahban, Hamed Abdollahi, and Alireza Tajik who was implicated in a plot to assassinate an Israeli businessman in Tbilisi, Iran International can reveal.
Iran's use of Afghans for targeting Israelis was first reported by The Israeli weblog Intellitimes.
In November 2022, Georgian security officials revealed that the Quds Force, the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, attempted to kill a prominent Israeli-Georgian living in Tbilisi.
Georgia later announced that the plot to kill Itsik Moshe, the chairman of Israel Georgia Chamber of Business had been masterminded by the IRGC-QF and implemented by Al Qaeda members.
An Afghan-Iranian named Alireza Tajik and a Pakistani agent named Amir Khan were involved in the operation. Additionally, more reports point to Iran involving Pakistanis and Afghans in carrying out terrorist attacks.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, stated in July that Iran was responsible for a foiled attack on the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan, “Tehran stands behind the attempt.”
At least three incidents involving alleged Iranian plots to target Israelis have occurred in Cyprus in more than a year according to AP. An alleged Iranian-backed hit squad planning to kill Israelis and other Jews was busted by Cyprus authorities in July.
It was reported in March that the Greek police arrested two Pakistani nationals who were alleged to be planning mass-casualty terrorist attacks against a Jewish restaurant and Chabad House in Athens. The perpetrators received orders from the IRGC.
"It seems that the Islamic Republic of Iran, Al Qaeda, and Taliban have put aside their religious differences for a broader war against Israel, using Afghan suicide bombers," Mojtaba Pourmohsen reported for Iran International.
Historically, the relationship between Al-Qaeda and Iran dates back to the early 1990s. During that time, al-Qaeda and Iran forged an agreement under which al-Qaeda members would train with Iranian intelligence operatives in Iran and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
After 9/11, Abu Hafs al-Mauritani and Mustafa Hamid, bin Laden's emissaries, were able to negotiate a deal with Iranian authorities. Iran provided a safe passageway for al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan to return to their respective countries or to relocate to third-party countries.
Additionally, Iran provided a permissive sanctuary within its borders to al-Qaeda leaders and their families. Bin Laden’s son Hamza was also named among those believed to be residing in Iran. In 2020 Israeli agents shot Abu Muhammad al-Masri Al Qaeda’s second-highest leader, on the streets of Tehran.
In 2021 the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly accused Iran's government of allowing the jihadist network al-Qaeda to establish a "new home base" there, "al-Qaeda today is operating under the hard shell of the Iranian regime's protection."
The UN reported in February that Seif al-Adel, the apparent new leader of al Qaeda, was in Iran. This information was later confirmed by the US authorities. A US federal grand jury indicted and charged al-Adel in November 1998 for his role in the bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which resulted in the deaths of 224 civilians and the wounding of more than 5,000 others.
Adel was already reported to be based in Iran by the US State Department. A reward of up to $10 million is being offered by the department under the Rewards for Justice program. According to the program's website, the former Egyptian army lieutenant colonel relocated to southeastern Iran under the protection of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the Africa bombings.
Between 2003 and 2015, he and four other Al Qaeda leaders were placed under virtual house arrest. The country released them in exchange for a kidnapped Iranian diplomat called Ahmad Nikbakht. However, he remained in Iran.
In October 2022, fifteen people were killed and 40 others injured in an attack on a Shiite religious shrine in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, according to Iranian state media agency, IRNA. According to the report, ISIS-affiliated three armed men carried out the attack at the Shah Cheragh Shrine.
Nevertheless, these men were Tajik, Azerbaijani and Afghan extremists who were linked to Al-Qaeda, which led to speculation that this raid was a false flag operation.
The ongoing war in Gaza has led to a new phase in the partnership between Iran and Taliban as the Taliban wishes to be physically involved in the conflict. “Israel is now a common target for both the Taliban and IRGC,” Iran International’s Pourmohsen says.
The IRGC has been recruiting Afghans since 2014 to fight alongside Syrian government forces by forming an Afghan Shia militia, the Fatemiyoun Division. The Guardian reported in 2016 that Afghans are offered "residence permits in Iran and approximately $500 per month" in exchange for fighting.
While Taliban leaders are motivated by ideological reasons, ordinary Afghans are driven to join mainly due to economic deprivation and vulnerability in a country ravaged by war and poverty.