What Will Become of Gestures of Unity?

While, since the beginning of the new Iranian year, the Majlis and the administration have had serious disagreements over issues ranging from implementation of the laws to Azad University to the subsidy reform plan, the Majlis and the administration participated in a joint meeting yesterday to display their readiness to resolve their differences. The meeting was held following remarks by ayatollah Khamenei on the importance of unity.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the joint meeting yesterday to calm tensions after months of disagreements and infighting. But, in light of the recent disagreements between the two branches over the implementation of laws passed by the Majlis, on Monday Ahmadinejad set a condition for implementing laws, saying to lawmakers, “If you pass good laws, the administration will do its best to implement them well.”

The remark confirmed his previous remarks that he would implement only those laws he deems to be “good.”

It is said that the joint meeting was held to on the insistence of ayatollah Khamenei. Calling on the Majlis and the administration to display unity, Khamenei had said in a speech last Wednesday: “No one must speak in a manner so as to foster pessimism about the administration, Majlis or judiciary among the people.”

Ali Larijani supported the supreme leader’s position yesterday, saying that the remarks were “timely and necessary.”

In recent weeks and months, after the administration violated the law by refusing to implement several bills passed by the Majlis, in a bid to show his determination to check the president’s behavior, Majlis speaker Ali Larijani independently ordered the implementation of several bills, angering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In the latest instance, despite the administration’s protest, the eighth Majlis speaker allocated two billion dollars to the Tehran subway project’s budget. The central bank refused to dispense the money and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the allocation illegal and refused to implement it.

Previously, Ali Larijani had ordered the implementation of a bill requiring the government to hold the eleventh presidential election and the fourth city council elections simultaneously.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not remain silent. Relying on previous shows of support from the supreme leader in similar political crises, in mid-summer Ahmadinejad announced that he has asked ayatollah Khamenei to resolve the difference between the two branches.

Pointing to ayatollah Khamenei’s recent remarks, however, experts believe that the unlike previous times the supreme leader has not intervened on Ahmadinejad’s behalf in this latest instance.

Some experts dismiss yesterday’s joint meeting as a sham display of unity. They regard internal disagreements in the right-wing camp to run too deep to be resolved by a meeting.