Haddad Adel Promises to Turn Majlis into the Leader’s Will

With the ninth Majlis now in place, semi-state Fars news agency published an interview with the parliament’s former Speaker Haddad Adel that throws light on the news agency’s preference to return him to the leadership of the assembly. This interview took place just a day after the son of the famed ayatollah Motahari, who is a conservative, outspoken and influential Majlis member, openly spoke of a role that Revolutionary Guards played in installing some individuals in the ninth Majlis. Adel won votes to become a Majlis representative from Tehran but some reports in the conservative media point the finger of Motahari’s claims on him.

Adel is the father of Khamenei’s son’s wife and last week, Fars published one of its longest interviews with him. This interview is revealing as it comes at a time when the heat in the battle for the leadership of the ninth Majlis has been picking up.

In the interview, the Fars reporter, a news organization that is closely linked to the Revolutionary Guards, calls the seventh Majlis – which was led by Adel – “one of the best” and relays the praise that the supreme leader of the country, ayatollah Khamenei had for that assembly. When asked to share a story from those days, Adel said that perhaps that was the only time when there were no fist fights in the assembly, adding “of which I am proud.”

The Ninth Majlis

Adel is in competition with the current Speaker of the Majlis Ali Larijani for the position of the Speaker of the assembly. The outgoing Majlis will hold its last session on Wednesday this week. In the Fars interview Adel said that he had two goals if he were elected Speaker: one was to further coordinate the affairs of the assembly with the guidance and calls of the supreme leader and that he would work to make the Majlis “ velayi ” i.e., in line with the supreme leader, and the other would be to make the assembly the place of “pleasant and rich in work and efforts,” to support efforts for national production and Iranian capital. National production is the theme that the leader of the Islamic regime has chosen for this year.

In response to a question about his competition that he has with Larijani to lead the Majlis, Adel said that he “strived not to be destructive against Mr. Larijani in this race and I tell my friends to not be destructive against others because regardless of who becomes Speaker, we will both remain in the Majlis and will work together and so our competition should not turn into animosity to make a friendship impossible.”

But despite these remarks, even conservative sites such as Raja News and Jahan News who are against Larijani retaining his Speakership position have been criticizing him in rather harsh terms. Raja News which is close to the administration posted a report titled, “The days of using unity have ended for Larijani’s supporters,” in which it said that it was not clear whether there was agreement to reelect him as Speaker.

Jahan News also had published stories to convey that the majority of the elected representatives favored Adel to be the new Speaker.

Larijani’s opponents have charged him with not being harsh enough against the leaders of the 2009 protests that challenged the official results of the presidential election that reinstated Ahmadinejad as president.

Adel’s Battle with the Green Movement

Just a day before one of the massive Green Movement demonstrations in 2009, Haddad Adel insulted the leaders of the movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, by comparing them to a denounced historical personality – Hatam Tai who is said to have urinated in a sacred well to gain fame. His remarks were so fiery that some Majlis representatives called for the death of Mousavi and Karoubi.

The controversy about Adel’s race in Tehran this year revolves around reports that while he did not get a single vote in the 25 precincts (of 4168) in the city of Tehran he was officially announced to have won the race.

Adel is supported by the Jebhe Paydari (Steadfast Front) affiliated to ulta-conservative cleric Mesbah Yazdi while Larijani’s supporters belong to the United Front close to ayatollah Mahdavi Kani. The ninth Majlis has many new faces whose affiliations have till now not been made clear.

Bulletin News belonging to the ministry of intelligence recently published a commentary on the Majlis and said that it resembled a boxing ring with many fighters all of whom would be fighting each other, while confirming the main contenders for the Speakership to be between Larijani and Adel.