Mehdi Karroubi Holds Khamenei Responsible for Iran’s Current Situation

Mehdi Karroubi, in an open letter to Ali Khamenei, called for the Supreme Leader to account for his performance instead of speaking from the “position of opposition.” He held Khamenei responsible for the policies of past decades and called for “structural reform of the system.”

Mehdi Karroubi, Secretary General of the National Trust Party and one of the leaders of protesters against the results of the 2009 presidential election, held Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, responsible for Iran’s current situation in an open letter.

Karroubi wrote in his letter: “Given the extent of your presence and influence at the highest level of power in the system, you must accept that the political, economic, cultural and social situation of the country today is a direct result of your strategic and executive policies.”

Transforming the Assembly of Experts into a “Subordinate of the Leader’s Office”

In another section of his letter, Karroubi accused the Supreme Leader of turning the Assembly of Experts “in practice into a subordinate of the Leader’s Office.”

The founder of the National Trust Party added: “[…] The Guardian Council, which before the constitutional amendments did not even have the right to oversee the election of the supreme leader, took control over the life and death of this important pillar of the Constitution that guarantees the republican nature and political legitimacy of the Islamic Republic system, and its output became a ceremonial assembly whose only annual duty is eulogy.”

Mehdi Karroubi said that Ali Khamenei’s placement in the “position of leadership” was accompanied by the elimination of “an important part of the authentic forces of the revolution.”

“Catastrophic Result” of a Policy

This leader of protesters against the 2009 election results also criticized Khamenei for bringing the Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij into “political and economic activities,” writing: “The catastrophic result of this is not hidden from anyone these days.” He then elaborated on the consequences of such policies: “In the political sphere, the political behavior of a number of Revolutionary Guard commanders and the organization and engineering of elections through the use of Basij forces has produced nothing but political instability, creating an atmosphere of despotism, eliminating popular sovereignty, and ultimately negating the republican nature of the system. In the economic sphere, their monopolistic tendencies resulting from the elimination of public tenders and illegal transfers of major and strategic industries of the country have created unprecedented corruption, the details of which I will spare mentioning.”

Mehdi Karroubi also called on Ali Khamenei to account for “the regrettable output of the Revolutionary Guard’s interference” in political, cultural, security and economic affairs.

This detainee in another section of his open letter also addressed the presidential elections of 2005 and 2009, speaking of the interference of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the Supreme Leader, in the 2005 election. According to him: “In the 2009 presidential election, the Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij, centered around your son, Seyyed Mojtaba, intervened in favor of one of the candidates, and as a result of their violations and fraud in three provinces—Isfahan, Tehran and Qom—the favored candidate was sent to the second round through a coup-like move by the Guardian Council, even though I ranked first in 11 provinces of the country. Of course, this occurred in the shadow of the monopolistic tendencies and inexperience of influential figures within the reform movement and also the weakness of the Interior Ministry in protecting people’s votes.”

Mehdi Karroubi also references his letter to the Supreme Leader in 2009 regarding “the interference” of Mojtaba Khamenei in the elections and continues: “[…] I wanted to prevent this nobleman’s interference, which you did not, and in 2009 you saw what catastrophe the electoral coup inflicted on the system and the revolution.”

Karroubi added: “A few months before the 2009 elections, I gave explicit warning to the then Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Firouzabadi, who had taken the liberty of presenting guidelines in his capacity as a military official for identifying a suitable president. Of course, they did their job in June 2009 and saw the results, and I paid the price of my open opposition to illegal docks and the interference of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij in politics and economics.”

“Apparent Contradiction”

The Secretary General of the National Trust Party also, referring to the “bungling engineering” of the 2009 elections, wrote to Khamenei: “Would it not have been better to pay attention to their wishes instead of resorting to violence and standing against the millions of people and saying that fraud and cheating are impossible in the system?”

Karroubi sees Ali Khamenei’s statements after the 2013 presidential election that “fraud in elections is not appropriate for the Islamic Republic system and officials should pursue such matters seriously” as being in “apparent contradiction” with his behavior in 2009, telling the Supreme Leader that in 2009 “you stand against those who are the greatest capital of the revolution and the country, speak to them with tyranny, and deny the possibility of fraud from the outset. But when your preferred candidate, with complete oversight and interference from his supporters in the Guardian Council, loses by a large margin, you speak of serious action by officials against violations.”

Mehdi Karroubi also, referring to the controversial disqualifications by the Guardian Council, wrote: “The position of leadership is not for disqualifying the late Hashemi Rafsanjani from participating in presidential elections one day and the next day disqualifying the grandson of Imam Khomeini, Seyyed Hasan Khomeini, who teaches advanced seminars in Qom and whose erudition has been attested to by several sources of emulation, or a learned figure like Javad Hajetikarami, a former member of the Assembly of Experts, with that revolutionary history and the suffering of the struggle period, who served only 10 years in prison in one instance, from participating in the assembly’s election.”

“Alarm Bell” of Street Protests

Mehdi Karroubi, referring to recent protests in various Iranian cities, described them as protests “against injustice, corruption and discrimination.” According to him, these protests: “are an alarm bell that you should recognize as soon as possible and address the people’s livelihood concerns.”

Karroubi wrote to the Supreme Leader: “You know that the revolutionary foundations, which were established at the beginning of the revolution to help the deprived and eliminate poverty from the country, have in practice been transformed into economic cartels and a private life for some influential people, with no oversight whatsoever. Some well-wishers say that more than 50 percent of the country’s wealth is in the hands of a few state institutions with no oversight over them.”

According to Karroubi, “in such circumstances, it is natural that the masses and lower classes of society, which have been the main base of the Islamic Revolution, turn into a powder keg.”

Mehdi Karroubi, referring to the fact that “the system is now in such decline that it becomes annoyed at a gathering of a few thousand people, feeling threatened by injustice and corruption,” asked Ali Khamenei to “before this deep wound worsens and more catastrophes occur in prisons,” issue an order for the release of “prisoners of the recent crisis.”

Speaking from the “Position of Opposition” as “Head of the System”

In the conclusion of his letter, this leader who protested the 2009 election results wrote to Ali Khamenei: “For three decades you have been at the head of the system and you still speak from the position of an opposition. In these three decades, you set aside an important part of the authentic forces of the revolution to implement your desired policies, and today you are facing the results of those same policies. Accountability is the duty of all officials of the system, and you, who have changed the performance of institutions and organizations like the Revolutionary Guard, Basij, Guardian Council, revolutionary institutions, Friday prayer leaders, state media, etc. in accordance with your views and policies, should pay more attention to this matter than others.”

Karroubi continued: “I earnestly ask you to create the conditions for reform so that all institutions of the country are practically accountable to the people and legal institutions, and the law rules in practice, not the rule of an individual or particular group.” He then warned: “I also ask you to carefully study the political, economic and international situation of the country and also to review the policies of the past few decades so that, before it is too late, you create the conditions for structural reform of the system in such a way that the people, those very people who with their millions on February 11 brought us from the corner of prisons to power, become in practice the masters of their own destiny.”

Mehdi Karroubi finally raised another specific request and wrote to the Supreme Leader: “As you are aware, since the day after the 2009 elections until today, apparently national media and government newspapers like Kayhan have continuously insulted me, Engineer Mousavi and the protesting people. In this process, they have deemed every accusation and lie permissible to distort public opinion against us and the protesters. Recently, a commissioned program titled ‘Out of Sight’ has been made in ten episodes that presented a false reading of the 2009 events. How long is this vile and cowardly method supposed to continue without recognizing the right to respond? After 8 years of one-sided insult, slander and abuse, would you not like once to provide a free and live debate between the two sides of this dispute on national media, which belongs to the country, not to individuals? By this, I announce my readiness to participate with my advisors in any debate related to the 2009 elections and the events that followed.”

Like Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard, leaders of the protests against the announced results of the 2009 presidential election, Mehdi Karroubi has been under house arrest under the supervision of agents of the Ministry of Intelligence since February 2011.

Source: DW