The steadfast people’s arrow hit the rock
The steadfast people’s arrow hit the rock
It was supposed to be that on Tuesday, in the open session of the parliament, the report of the National Security Commission regarding the definite violation by Medicalian in appointing Zarif due to his child’s dual citizenship would be read. But today it was announced that tomorrow’s session is canceled because of the commission’s integration meeting. I assume the presidium’s honesty and hope this report will be read on Wednesday.
Mr. Amirhossein Sabati’s Monday night wish, however, was not fulfilled on Wednesday morning because the reading of the report he was expecting was not included in yesterday’s agenda of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Before he could question the presidium’s honesty, a more aligned and radical representative criticized and said, ‘We had a request from about 40 MPs to apply Article 234 regarding the government’s refusal to fully implement the law on appointing individuals in sensitive positions. The National Security Commission also found that objection valid and determined that the president had refused. It should have been read today.’
He addressed the Speaker of the Parliament and said, ‘You told me this issue is related to oversight Tuesdays. Show me where in the regulations it says oversight Tuesdays, insightful Wednesdays, or meeting Mondays.’
So far, this was the narrative of the confrontation between the prominent representatives of the Steadfast Front and the Speaker of the Parliament, who, under the pretext of Mohammad Javad Zarif, are actually targeting the president and want to criticize the appointer. However, as if they have vowed to overlook the three-year period of the late Ebrahim Raisi and, with or without relevance, take a jab at the era of Hassan Rouhani, it is further said that the issue is not one person but a current that took the country backward for eight years and today stands beside the president. Electricity is cut off, water is cut off, and bread becomes expensive.
Everything is getting more expensive because some people there advise that we should go and extend our hand to the West.
This game, however, has become repetitive. Whenever the government is not under the control of this group, they suddenly remember the economy and livelihood and shed tears for the people’s table. And whenever they are in control, they invite people to frugality. Surprisingly, they see the solution not in improving foreign policy and lifting sanctions but in continuing the failed three-year policies. Their dream was that in the new parliament, they would also take the Speaker’s chair from him, let alone predict that they would lose control of the government. This is how failure followed failure, and beyond the success they achieved in the parliamentary elections, they did not succeed in sitting higher than Qalibaf in the final list. Neither did Qalibaf fall from the Speaker of the Parliament, nor did their preferred candidate, Saeed Jalili, reach the presidency despite the reduced participation.
After that, they sharpened their knives against the cabinet, and every day Kayhan headlined not to vote for the dissidents, but Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech on that historic Wednesday broke the spell, and both dissidents and non-dissidents received a vote of confidence.
While Javad Zarif’s resignation on the eve of that day made sensitivity towards him irrelevant.
A resignation that, although interpreted as an objection to the final arrangement and ignoring some of the advisory council’s options, in practice, lifted the burden off Pezeshkian on the day of the vote of confidence. And shortly after, when he opposed Zarif’s resignation from the strategic deputy position and attended a meeting with the leadership, the radicals felt they had been outmaneuvered.
Since they couldn’t reach the president, they turned to Zarif to see how long the unity between the president and the Speaker of the Parliament would last and how much resistance Pezeshkian had. With this background, it was predictable that yesterday, which was again a Wednesday, they would become angry, and this time the Speaker of the Parliament showed a more explicit reaction and said, ‘Yes, it is not written in the regulations oversight Tuesday or legislative Wednesday, but in Article 22 of the regulations, it is stated that preparing and organizing the weekly agenda of the parliament is the responsibility of the presidium and the Speaker of the Parliament. And if you look at the weekly agenda, you will see it is written as oversight orders and legislative orders.’
Oversight orders are always on Tuesdays, and legislative orders are on Sundays and Wednesdays. Therefore, the regulations give this authority to the Speaker and the presidium. The determination of Article 234 is also with the presidium and the Article 90 Commission, and whenever its report is ready, it will be read out of turn.
The emphasis on the Article 90 Commission instead of the National Security Commission shows that the wishes of the Steadfast Front representatives are not fulfilled for now, that is, to remove his hand from the government like the other Javad Azari Jahromi.
In the new term, they have not referred to Articles 124 and 126 of the Constitution, which explicitly grant the right to appoint deputies to the president and consider administrative and employment affairs under his authority. Their only temporary pretext is an article from the sensitive jobs law that deals with refusal.
It seems that the president has coordinated either in the meeting of the heads of the three branches or at a higher level, and it is obvious that exceptions should be made for the dual citizenship of children resulting from diplomatic missions or officials who previously held high responsibilities. But the representatives affiliated with the Steadfast Front have drawn their swords and want to show authority, and so far, Qalibaf has managed the situation.
The fact that representatives are concerned about the transfer of information and assets of sensitive officials to spouses or children with dual citizenship is understandable and can be justified, but all this focus on one person actually shows that the issue is indeed him, and they are tugging with a current that seeks to lift sanctions and open up, and the choice of Masoud Pezeshkian was essentially because of that cage metaphor and the promise of ending isolation.
These behaviors, however, have not only not caused the government to retreat but, on the contrary, have led to more explicit statements from the government spokesperson to the point where yesterday, in defense of the government’s reform bill, the term ‘national capital assassination’ was used for the initial resolution.
The most intense and explicit stance we have heard from Ms. Mohajerani, and instead of responding to the two representatives pursuing the refusal, she has actually addressed the resolution itself in the form of defending the amendment and said it needs reform because it is the assassination of national capitals, and the amendment to the law on appointing individuals in sensitive jobs is written for people, not a person, as there are many young Iranian elites who have gone abroad for further studies, had children there, and now because their child was born in another country, they cannot enter the executive arena and serve and help their country and system.
With this in mind, three possibilities are conceivable: First, they might pressure the president to remove Javad Zarif out of fear of being accused of refusal, but since he resigned and left, he will not step aside himself, and if the president does this, it will be seen as a weakness, although some political actors believe that Zarif’s role can be realized without this decree and paper, and the issue should not be made a matter of honor.
Ultimately, they will hold some celebrations and joy, but they will tune a new melody again, and for this reason, there is a counter-view that the more you back down, the more they will advance. However, Pezeshkian has announced that he is not one for quarrels and primarily does not want to enter into a fight with these thirty or forty steadfast representatives. The second possibility is that they vote for the government’s amendment, and the issue resolves itself, which would be the ultimate defeat for the steadfast members of the parliament, especially if it is approved on a Wednesday, and it is unlikely they will do so by suggestion or recommendation. The third option, however, is the method that Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has taken, keeping the bowl tilted and unsteady.
Like the resolution on hijab and dress, which has been left unaddressed because if the president did not sign it, the Speaker of the Parliament had to announce it, and if it was announced, how would it be implemented, and assuming they wanted to implement it, what sane mind would combine economic pressure with social pressure and not learn from the events of 2022.
It is ironic that in America, Donald Trump, just two weeks after defeating Kamala Harris, considered a Cuban-American Marco Rubio for the position of Secretary of State, and he was extensively covered on Sunday in Ham-Mihan, while here Masoud Pezeshkian, four and a half months after his victory, still has to deal with whether the former Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran should remain in his government or not. The Rouhani government in its final months faced the obstacle of the strategic law for reviving the JCPOA, and the Pezeshkian government in its initial months must grapple with the sensitive jobs law.
With all this, what apparently has not been considered in the calculations of the steadfast people is that if the plan was to use former forces, the field might not have been as open or opened, and besides this, it seems they do not pay attention that imbalance is a respectful title or a pre-phase of bankruptcy, and the important mission of this government is to overcome imbalances that if not already bankruptcy, will soon arrive.
So far, neither from Wednesday, August 22, have the opponents of Pezeshkian in the parliament warmed up, nor from Wednesday, November 21, when they were looking for the president’s refusal report, until the next Wednesday to be auspicious for them or ominous.
Although the expressions meeting Mondays, oversight Tuesdays, and insightful Wednesdays have been used sarcastically, we are indeed witnessing managerial Wednesdays from the perspective of the Speaker of the Parliament and ominousness for the representatives who seem to have chosen the shortest path to solve economic and livelihood problems, which is the removal of Zarif.
Perhaps more time is still needed for some to believe that the jug is broken, and the cup is spilled. The era of purification has ended, and if we do not address the imbalance, it will manifest in the form of bankruptcy, and on that day, we should not fear that Iran will be mistaken for Iraq, but we should be worried it does not share the same fate as Greece.
