VOFI Week in Review

As we get closer to the elections, power struggle among the regime’s two main fractions gets a pitch. On Feb. 26, Iranian regime will hold so called elections which also determine members of the “Assembly of Experts”. The most important statutory characteristic of this assembly is its power to decide about the fate of the “Supreme Leader”. This has become the principal asset for dogfights between the regime’s two main fractions trying to push each other out of the edge. Khamenei, on one side is trying to keep his most influential position in the regime, while Rafsanjani and Rouhani are trying to make Khamenei share his power.

Since 37 years ago when Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini grasped power in Iran, this regime has been trying to extinguish the Iranian resistance. Benefiting his high position among shiait clergies, Khomeini attempted to wipe out his opponents by labeling them as “hypocrites” and “enemies of God”. The resistance, nevertheless, offering more than 120.000 lives, stood up against the regime. The severe fight between the two, although some western politicians try to hide it under their political or economic interests, is the main decisive conflict in Iran’s political atmosphere. In this battle the resistance has gained momentum while splits have emerged inside the regime. Retreating from its ambitions to acquire the nuclear bomb was a major defeat for the Iranian regime degrading the position of the supreme leader. Fear of another uprising by the infuriated masses made Khamenei to bow in the nuclear talks. This defeat in turn has brought more setbacks for the regime. The fight among the government fractions aimed to gain a bigger slice of the cake in the February elections brings to light the Iranian regime’s weakened position.

Various factions inside the Iranian regime are planning and engineering different methods of cheating in the February 26th parliament and Assembly of Experts’ elections through numerous methods. Khomeini’s grandson, one of Rafsanjani’s candidates for the “Assembly of Experts” was disqualified by the “Guardian Council” which is under Khamenei’s influence.

 In one of his recent speeches, Rafsanjani tried to make benefit of Hassan Khomeini’s kin to Ayatollah Khomeini to attack Khamenei. ” How do you not accept a person who is the most similar to Khomeini? Where did you, yourselves, get your qualifications?”

Nejatollah Ibrahimian, spokesman of the Guardian Council said in response to the reaction seen from the Rafsanjani-Rouhani faction in relation to their candidates being disqualified from these elections, “How can we expect the credentials of 12,000 candidates be evaluated in 10 days?

Meanwhile, Rouhani’s trip to Europe does not seem to have brought much luck for him. “Sanctions have been lifted but really things are still not very clear”, a source at a major French bank told AFP on condition of anonymity. A deputy to Khamenei’s representative in the “Revolutionary Guards” threatened to arrest Rafsanjani and take him to Evin prison, where his son is kept.

The two fractions in the Ayatollahs regime are in a deadline in their fight against each other. Any miscalculations may end to an explosion that can doom the whole regime to loss. The newspaper,”Vatane Emrooz” wrote on Feb. 1st, “Rafsanjani refers us to the sad memories of 2009. He threatens that if his advices for the elections are not observed, then regional discontents may transmit to Iran too”