Mr. Rowhani, The Guards Are Rivals of the Public!

Even with the passage of days since president Hassan Rowhani said Iran’s revolutionary guards (IRGC) should participate in the country’s economic projects, various political groups continue their commentary on his remarks. Some hardline conservatives belonging to the principlist groups have emerged as Rowhani’s main critics in this regard.

Speaking to IRGC commanders a few days ago, Rowhani said the force was a positive institution and asked that it help his administration because, “The Guards understand the conditions of the country and the government very well. We are a country that used to sell 2.5 million barrels of oil a day which has fallen to less than a million barrels a day now. This is happening at a time when we have to import 7.5 million tons of wheat today. So the IRGC needs to pull up its sleeves and help the government’s burdens.”

In his remarks, Rowhani also referred to the problem of smuggling going on in the country and said, “The IRGC can be useful regarding problem of smuggling alongside the police and the ministry of intelligence because conditions are such that the Guards must help prevent the smuggling of goods as this harms economic development and production.”

In other parts of his remarks, which received the most criticism, Rowhani said, “I do not accept the rumors that exist about the Guards’ role in the economy. The IRGC is not a competitor to the public or the private sector, like a regular contractor. The force must take up those key projects that the private sector is unable to carry out. I have talked to the supreme commander so that the Guards take responsibility for some of the national economic projects and be honored with it. Under the current conditions of sanctions, the Guards should get involved and take up three or four large national projects.”

Just a few hours after these remarks, Ali Motahari, the conservative hardline member of parliament, the Majlis, wrote a piece in which he said, “It is very unlikely that the president does not know that the guards today are rivals of the public and the private sector, and acts like a regular contractor. This has had a negative impact on the force itself and the economy of the country. We too hope that the force takes up only those projects that the private sector is incapable of implementing. In any case we expect more clarity from Mr. Rowhani.”

But another forum, Resalat newspaper which is close to the conservative Islamic Coalition Party (Hezbe Motalefe Islami) welcomed the president’s remarks and wrote, “If the exchanges between the Guards and the administration remain limited to formal statements and some government ministries prevent the participation of the force to confront the sanctions, then work will not progress as it should. During the last few weeks, some appointments and removals in some key ministries such as the oil ministry have unfortunately indicated that there is no desire for cooperation between the administration and the Guards. The removal of efficient government managers and staff who have shown a positive record in the last years is not in line with the president’s emphasis resolve.”

Another conservative grouping Alef website affiliated to hardline Ahmad Tavakoli echoed this line of thought. Its editorial said the president’s remarks indicated his knowledge of the power relations in the country, adding that the main difference between Rowhani and Khatami or Ahmadinejad was that, “Rowhani fully understands the power structure in the Islamic republic and knows of the institutional powers that are present and effective in the political landscape of the country, including those that are outside the formal government structure. He also knows well that his success depends on his constructive cooperation with these effective institutions. Unlike Khatami, Rowhani does not view cooperation with the Guards to be a barrier for democracy and unlike Ahmadinejad does not see them to be against the executive branch’s independence. The views of Khatami and Ahmadinejad may be closer to his guts, but he has preferred not to challenge and conflict with these institutions. So he visits the clergy while at the same time applauds the Guards, confusing his friends. You will see that he will soon shine in front of the Basijis and the religious groups.”

But there are also critics and Mohammad Noorizad is among them. This journalist is on record to having written a number of open public letters of criticism to Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei. This is what he wrote on Rowhani’s remarks about the Guards: “Because of his knowledge of the various layers of the Guards, Mr. Rowhani is deeply fearful of this fearing military-economic-intelligence institution and stays away from the plots that the generals of the force may engage to interfere in his work and pull out documents or create crises or conflict. He understands well that regardless of his positive or negative remarks of the force, the generals of the force will get involved in the large and national projects of the country.  So in his mind it is better to take the initiative and invite them to implement trillion Toman projects so that the generals remain occupied with these projects, they leave the smaller projects to others and he himself can get some favors in return from them.”

In recent years, many political activists have openly criticized the Guards’ expanding role in the economy of the country and have held Ahmadinejad’s administration responsible for this. The public relations officer of the Guards, Ramezan Sharif, made interesting remarks towards the end of Ahmadinejad’s term when he said, “Regarding the development activities of the force, there were less constrains during Rafsanjani’s and particularly Khatami’s administrations. It was more difficult to get a contract to do a job during the ninth and tenth administrations (Ahmadinejad’s years). These are not my words but those of the former commander of the Khatam al-Anbia engineering/construction division (of the Guards).”

It should be noted that during Ahmadinejad administrations, IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbia engineering division received oil projects worth 25 billion Dollars, despite not having any experience in the oil industry.

Prior to these remarks, Abolghasem Mozafari Shams, the former Anbia commander had said that the IRGC was involved only in 8 percent of the country’s development projects. Anbia is viewed as the largest contractor for the government.

The Anbia division was created after the end of the 8-year war with Iraq and its initial activities were limited to water, dam and road construction efforts.