Extremists Have a Plan for the Majlis

Ali Tajernia, a member of the governing council of the moderate Jebhe Mosharekat (Participation Front) and also the head of the Islamic Society of the Association of Iranian Doctors, told Rooz that a number of current Majlis representatives fear that they may not win in the upcoming Majlis elections and have consequently engaged in activities aimed at eliminating popular activists under the guise of accusing them of being involved in the 2009 post election unrest, which the regime calls a sedition.

Tajernia at the same time views Hassan Rouhani’s administration to be the inheritor of a country in which all human, social and economic resources have all been destroyed. He said he would be happy if Rouhani’s administration succeeded in stopping the destructive trend of the country in the first 100 days of its office.

While he views the February 24 Geneva agreement between Iran and the P5+1 to be a success diplomatic story for Rouhani, he adds that the president must undertake a serious review of the law government parties and create the necessary conditions for parties to be freely active, while at the same time getting rid of the securitized atmosphere in the country.

Tajernia was himself a voted representative in the sixth Majlis and a member of the national security and foreign policy committee of the assembly. He had also been a member of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s election campaign in 2009 and had been arrested in the unrest that followed the voting. He was among the few who actually appeared in the kangaroo trials of the detainees and was sentenced to six years of prison plus 74 slashes. His retrial reduced his sentence to a year after which he was released.

Yesterday, Javad Karimi Ghodoosi, a current member of the national security committee of the Majlis introduced a bill that bans the administration of recruiting individuals who it determines had participated in the 2009 unrest, members of the banned Participation Front and the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution party.

In reaction to the bill, Tajernia has said, “Neither the Participation Front nor the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution party have been dissolved through a legal process. No trials have been held over accusations against them and there has been no jury to hear out their case, which are rules of the country civil procedure. Furthermore, no order or judgment about a temporary ban has been issued against the Participation Front.  Even despite the ban order of the party issued by Article 10 of the Parties Law Committee, that ban has been suspended, all of which indicate that there is no legal basis for the claims of the dissolution of the party.”

In response to a question about the current bill regarding banning the recruitment of members of the Participation Front, Tajernia says this is a political act whose purpose is to create a political atmosphere. “There is absolutely no legal ground for this. These are like political statements but the internal rules of the Majlis require the presiding board of the assembly to stop such act. These individuals in the Majlis are angry because they notice that the Participation Front has not altered its moderate course despite the pressures on it.” He continued, “I believe these gentlemen and their friends are fearful that of the possible outcome of the upcoming Majlis elections. If the elections are held freely, these people and their parties would certainly not receive public attention and support. If we view Mr. Jalili to be their candidate, the last elections showed that his support is at about the same level of that of Karimi. They are in fact making plans for the next Majlis elections with the aim of eliminating political personalities from the Majlis election by using such rhetoric as the sedition of 2009.”

Tajernia referred to the extremists who had drafted a bill to ban members of the Participation Front from being hired by Rouhani’s administration as individuals who had been placed in the Majlis in the absence of any fair elections only indicates the bankruptcy of the movement to which they belong aimed at silencing the voice of the opponents.

In his interview, he also called on the administration to seriously re-examine the Parties Law and to create the basis of greater party involvement in the political sphere of the country. “Mr. Rouhani and his team’s efforts in efforts to resolve the country’s foreign policy issues have been very effective and satisfactory. But since the president has also expressly made some promises about political and social freedoms, we naturally expect him to fulfill those in the future. This is particularly relevant because Mr. Rouhani needs the support of the public which are shaped through political parties. Still, we need not become disenchanted if public calls are not met in the short run.”

“Any administration that would have come to office after the ninth administration, including Mr. Rouhani, would have inherited a country whose social, economic and human capital had been destroyed,” he added. Tajernia also said that wanted the house arrests of Mr. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mr. Mehdi Karubi and Zahra Rahnavard lifted.