The steadfast’s arrow hit the rock
The steadfast’s arrow hit the rock
It was supposed to be read on Tuesday in the open session of the Parliament, the report of the National Security Commission regarding the definite violation of the medical practitioner in appointing Zarif due to his child’s dual nationality, but today it was announced that tomorrow’s session has been canceled due to the meeting of the Integration Commission. I assume the Presidium is honest and hope this report will be read on Wednesday.
Mr. Amirhossein Sabati’s wish on Monday night 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, and before he questioned the Presidium’s honesty, a representative aligned and more radical than him criticized and said we had a request from about 40 representatives of the Parliament to apply Article 234 regarding the government’s refusal to fully implement the law on the appointment of individuals in sensitive positions. The National Security Commission also acknowledged that issue and determined that the President had refused, and it should have been read today.
He addressed the Speaker of the Parliament and said you told me this issue is related to supervisory Tuesdays, show me where in the bylaws it says supervisory Tuesdays are insightful Wednesdays or meeting Mondays.
Up to this point, it was a narrative of the confrontation between prominent representatives of the Steadfast Front and the Speaker of the Parliament, who, under the pretext of Mohammad Javad Zarif, in fact, targeted the President and want to criticize the appointer. But since it seems they have vowed to ignore the three-year period of the late Ebrahim Raisi, they make relevant and irrelevant references to Hassan Rouhani’s era. He continued to say the issue is not one person but a movement that took the country backward for eight years and today stands beside the President. Power cuts, water cuts, and bread becomes expensive.
Everything is getting more expensive because there are people there advising and saying we should go and extend our hands to the West.
But this game has become repetitive. Whenever the government is not under their control, they suddenly remember the economy and livelihood and shed tears for the people’s table, and whenever they are in power, they invite the people to frugality. Surprisingly, they see the solution not in improving foreign policy and lifting sanctions but in continuing the failed policies of the past three years. Their dream was to take the Speaker’s chair in the new Parliament, let alone predict they would lose the government too. This is how failure followed failure, and beyond the success they had in the parliamentary elections, sitting higher than Qalibaf in the final list, no success was achieved. Neither did Qalibaf fall from the Speakership, nor did their favored candidate Saeed Jalili reach the presidency despite reduced participation.
After that, they sharpened their blades against the cabinet, and every day Kayhan headlined not to vote for those with angles, but Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech on that historic Wednesday broke the spell, and those with and without angles received a vote of confidence.
While Javad Zarif’s resignation on the eve of that day rendered the sensitivity towards him moot.
A resignation that, although interpreted as a protest against the final arrangement and neglecting some of the Steering Council’s options, in practice lifted the burden off Pezeshkian on the day of the vote of confidence. A short time later, when he opposed Zarif’s resignation from the Strategic Deputy and attended a meeting with the Leader, the radicals felt they had been outwitted.
Since they couldn’t reach the President, they turned to Zarif to see how long the President and the Speaker’s alliance would last and how far Pezeshkian’s resistance would go. With this background, it was predictable that yesterday, which was again Wednesday, they would be angry, and this time the Speaker of the Parliament reacted more explicitly and said yes, it is not written in the bylaws supervisory Tuesday or legislative Wednesday, but in Article 22 of the bylaws it is stated that the preparation and arrangement of the weekly program of the Parliament is the responsibility of the Presidium and the Speaker of the Parliament, and if you look at the week’s agenda, you will see it says supervisory orders and legislative orders.
Supervisory orders are always on Tuesdays, and legislative orders are on Sundays and Wednesdays. Therefore, the bylaws 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.
Emphasizing the Article 90 Commission and not the National Security Commission shows that the wishes of the Steadfast Front representatives are not being fulfilled for now, to cut him off from the government like the other Javad Azari Jahromi.
In the new round, 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 pretext for now is a clause from the law on sensitive jobs that deals with refusal.
It seems 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 must be made for the dual nationality of children resulting from diplomatic missions or officials who previously held high responsibilities. However, representatives affiliated with the Steadfast Front have drawn their swords and want to show authority, and so far, Qalibaf has managed the situation.
That representatives are concerned about the transfer of information and assets of sensitive officials to spouses or children with dual nationality is understandable and can be justified. However, all this focus on one person actually shows the issue is him, and they are tugging with a movement seeking to lift sanctions and open up, and the selection of Masoud Pezeshkian was essentially because of that cage metaphor and the promise to end isolation.
These behaviors, however, have not only not caused the government to retreat but, on the contrary, have led to more explicitness from the government spokesperson, to the point where yesterday, in defense of the government’s amendment bill, the term ‘national capital assassination’ was used for the initial resolution.
The most explicit and direct stance we’ve heard from Mrs. Mohajerani, and instead of responding to the two representatives pursuing refusal, she has, in defense of the amendment, actually addressed the resolution itself, saying it needs revision because it is the assassination of national capitals, and the amendment to the law on the appointment of individuals in sensitive jobs is written for people, not one person, because there are many young Iranian elites who have gone abroad for further education, have 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 all this, three possibilities are conceivable: First, they might pressure the President to remove Javad Zarif to avoid being accused of refusal, but since he resigned and left, he will not step down himself, and if the President does this, it will be seen as a weakness, although some political actors believe Zarif’s role can be fulfilled without this title and paper, and the issue should not be made a matter of prestige.
Eventually, they will hold a few celebrations and rejoice, but they will tune a new melody again, and therefore, there is a reciprocal view that the more they back down, the more they will advance. However, Pezeshkian has announced he is not one for fighting and, by extension, does not want to enter into a fight with these thirty to forty steadfast representatives either. The second scenario is to vote for the government’s amendment, and the issue will be resolved by itself. This 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 would hint or recommend such a thing. The third option, however, is the approach that Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf has taken, keeping the bowl balanced.
Like the resolution on hijab and dress code that has been left silent because if the President did not sign it, the Speaker of the Parliament would have to announce it, and if he announced it, 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 1401.
It is ironic that in America, Donald Trump, only two weeks after defeating Kamala Harris, considered a Cuban-American Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, and on Sunday, he was extensively covered in Ham-Mihan, and here Masoud Pezeshkian, four and a half months after victory, still has to deal with the presence or absence of the former Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran in his government. The Rouhani government faced the strategic law obstacle in the final months to revive the JCPOA, and the Pezeshkian government in the early months has to wrestle with the law on sensitive jobs.
Despite all this, what seems to be overlooked in the calculations of the steadfast members is that if the intention was to use former forces, perhaps the field would not be so wide or opened, and besides, they apparently do not consider that imbalance is a respectful title or pre-stage of bankruptcy, and the important mission of this government is to overcome the imbalances that, if not already, will sooner or later mean bankruptcy.
So far, neither from Wednesday, August 31, 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 is either good for them or bad.
Although the expression ‘meeting Mondays,’ ‘supervisory Tuesdays,’ and ‘insightful Wednesdays’ have been used sarcastically, we are actually witnessing managerial Wednesdays from the perspective of the Speaker of the Parliament and misfortune 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 as bankruptcy, and on that day, we should not fear being mistaken for Iraq, but we should worry about not sharing the fate of Greece.