It’s Larijani’s Time to be Removed

Divisions within the ranks of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s allies, known as the Principalists, have led to purges and eliminations, and such prominent figures as senior former Majlis leader Mohammad Reza Bahonar, who has been an outspoken critic of Ahmadinejad’s policies, have been removed from the group’s central decision making circle, it appears now that the focus is on removing Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani from his leading this faction in the assembly.

On Saturday a leadership member of the Principalists faction announced that, “the Speaker of the Majlis should be other than the head of Principalist faction so that when necessary more direct postures can be taken.”

Ismail Kowsari who has recently joined the central council of the Principalist faction explained his position by saying, “Mr. Larijani aside, others for consideration to lead the faction are Haddad Adel, Agha-Tehrani and Sadr and it is expected that one will be elected at the internal elections.”

Others have mentioned other names that could possible emerge as the head of the faction. Jalal Yahyazadeh, who is himself a member of the Principalist faction in the Majlis said, “Currently Ruhollah Hosseinian, Ali-Asqar Zarei, and Morteza Agha-Tehrani are among the candidates to lead the faction.”

Yahyazadeh further said, “it appears that Mr. Larijani is ready to step down as the leader of the Principalist faction” thus openly discussing the drive of Ahmadinejad’s allies to remove Larijani and stressed, “They began this game by removing Bahonar from the central council of the Principalists.”

“In the next few days, the general assembly of the Principalists will meet to discuss the credentials of the three remaining cabinet posts” adding, “A meeting will also be held to elect the new leadership of the faction.”

The goal of removing Larijani, as maneuvered by the president’s allies, comes at a time when the president’s fellow hardliners have been increasingly critical of his administration’s policies and have been absent in the meeting that were organized for all the Principalists to meet with Ahmadinejad.

As Majlis Speaker, Larijani has prevented the passage of some of the government’s bills in the parliament and prior to the June 12 elections opposed the reelection of Ahmadinejad inside the Principalists group.

The drive by Ahmadinejad’s allies to remove Ali Larijani, a relatively moderate member of the same faction, comes at a time when the pro-administration media has been implicitly raising the idea that Larijani is not interested in leading the Principalist faction in their talks with Majlis representatives. At a recent Principalist meeting on selecting representatives for Tehran’s municipality, the Principalists barred such personalities as Bahonar and seyed-Reza Akrami from joining the leadership.

In this regard, Shahabaldin Sadr, a member of the central council of the Principalists, said “From amongst the 25 individuals who voted, 24 voted for me, 20 for Ismael Kowsari, 19 for Ali Asqar Zarei, 17 for Morteza Agha-Tehrani, and 13 for Alireza Zakani, who became the new members of the central council.”

It should be noted that Bahonar, seyed-Reza Akrami and Fateme Rahbar were candidates for membership.

In recent months, Bahonar has been siding and supportive of Larijani, so his denial to join the leadership council is understandable. And while opposing many of the ministerial candidates proposed by Ahmadinejad, Bahonar said, “MPs voted for Ahmadinejad’s cabinet ministers because of the advice of the leader.”

Analysts say that the drive to remove him from leadership and influential positions began when Bahonar took these positions regarding Ahmadinejad. Furthermore, Hamid Rasai, a hardline member of the Majlis and a supporter of Ahmadinejad recently said that, “Many Principalists activists, particularly those who acted on post June 12 election media coverage of these events are surprised at Mr. Bahonar’s efforts to harm the tenth administration and his blatant opposition to the administration, while those who have been following these events closely were not surprised with his postures.”