Iran Assembly of Experts concludes meeting without chairman

Assembly of Experts

Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the only executive body able to discharge the Supreme Leader, issued its final statement after bringing the meeting to a speedy end today in the absence of Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the chair of the assembly. Having aligned himself with opposition concerns about fraud in the elections, Ayatollah Rafsanjani was expected to reflect some of those concerns in the assembly. Some pro-reform clerics had even demanded a review of the Leader’s suitability in view of his role in the post-election violent crackdown on protesters.

Yesterday in his opening speech at the assembly, Ayatollah Rafsanjani chose a path of reconciliation with Ayatollah Khamenei and today, hardliner Ahmad Khatami, member of the assembly’s executive committee, claimed that despite his absence, the chair of the assembly was in agreement with every line of the assembly’s final statement.

Appreciative of the leader’s “wise policies” for extinguishing the “seditious flames” in the recent events, the expert clerics write that they have renewed their full allegiance to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, for he is the most suitable person for leadership. The leader is even congratulated for not giving in to allegations of fraud in the June presidential elections.

The judiciary’s allegations that foreign powers had conspired to overthrow the Islamic system of Iran in the recent events is also echoed in the statement of the Assembly of Experts.

In finality, while congratulating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his second term of presidency, the assembly counsels him to heed the “critiques of concerned Shiite clerics” in all his efforts.