NCRI Staff
NCRI – The rift and power struggle in the Iranian regime, which has dominated the ruling pyramid from top to bottom, has become so widespread that the media and government experts describe it as a kind of structural chaos in the regime.
The wide and deep conflicts among various regime’s bands have created parallel and hostile entities in the regime, such as the Parliament against the Guardian Council or the Ministry of Intelligence against the IRGC’s Intelligence and…
Interestingly, this has reached a point where the state media directly and openly admit to this essential chaos.
In one of the most recent examples, the state-run Rouz (Day) newspaper in an article on September 17, titled “With what processes the syndrome of draining power in the body of the system can be controlled?” wrote about “creating abrasion in the centres of power,” and concluded that “the mirror of policy and public management in Iran is largely fading.”
The state-run newspaper refers to advanced and law-based systems whose institutions operate in a coherent and consistent manner, and are responsive to the people, but because of the structural chaos that governs the (our) system, “the number of power centres goes beyond normal to anarchism, causing the disruption and wear of the gears of the community engine.”
The writer addresses the conflicts among the power centres of the regime and writes: “Friday prayer leaders and governors have long been causing abrasion of the regime because of the idea of which governor should be the first and foremost to govern the country.
The Army and the Revolutionary Guards were also pushing against each other at a certain moment, and the Expediency Council was the result of a conflict in the affairs of the constitutional process in the Parliament and the Guardian Council. Right now in some cases, the Expedience Council assumes a restraint role and an inhibitor in relation to the parliament.
The issue of interference and the creation of tension, conflict and wear in the executive and judicial spheres was also significant, which, in some cases, has seen proper management. But in some fields, the intervention has become more intense.”
Although the author of the paper does not explicitly acknowledge that this chaos and the existence of parallel institutions are due to the absolute power of the regime’s Supreme Leader and his involvement and intervention in all matters, but when he explains the parallel work of institutions such as the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, the Parliament, the Expediency Council and… He implicitly admits this fact (the absolute power of Ali Khamenei) and writes:
“A period of time, causing the supreme leader (Khamenei) based on the authority given to him by the constitution, to form an institution. The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution is an example of such necessities. The time for termination of these rulings (formation of these institutions) has not been mentioned for some reason. The multiplicities of the establishment of these centres in other powers and the shuffling of the powers of the Parliament have created obstacles beyond a facilitator’s role.”
“From the constitutional point of view, the only institution that has the task of legislating is the Parliament. But this issue is threatened by the Expediency Council, the Guardian Council, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, and other councils. “
It can be seen that chaos, parallel work, endless conflict, is associated with the existence and identity of the Iranian regime.
More important than these parallel institutions is Khamenei’s position, which is not an impartial reference to resolve the disagreement between these institutions, and in many cases his interference leads to more disorder in the regime.
In the field of economic affairs, the institutions under Khamenei’s control, such as the Executive Committee of the Command of the Imam, the Mostazafan Foundation, the Shahid Foundation, the Khatam headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards, the charitable foundations under the control of the Friday Imams and the mosques, … not only are not accountable to the government and are exempted from paying taxes to the government, but also in many ways, act in the opposite direction to the government’s plans and decisions.
The activities of small and large cultural foundations under the influence of the Islamic Propaganda Organization, the seminary of Qom and… are also heterogeneous and parallel institutions that are not in control of the state and are never accountable to the government for their actions. These were just one corner of the scene of this chaos.
This mess, of course, is not specific to the Rouhani’s government, but has been dominant in previous governments and throughout the life of the regime, conflict and growing factional feuds that weaken the system and make it more crippled day by day.
