Arash Aramesh

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad filed a suit against Ali Motahhari, a conservative member of the Iranian parliament, last month. According to Tabnak, a political website close to former Islamic Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai, Motahhari said he was unable to discuss the charges brought against him and he did not intend to publicize the case. Motahhari said, “Making this case public would only hurt Ahmadinejad.”

Ali Motahhari is the son of Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, a revered cleric and thinker in the Islamic Republic who was assassinated in the first few months of the Islamic Revolution. As a member of the Iranian parliament, Motahhari has been instrumental in forming a conservative opposition against President Ahmadinejad and his hardliner allies in the parliament.

Motahhari’s allies in the parliament include prominent figures such as Speaker Ali Larijani and prominent conservative Mohammad-Reza Bahonar.

Larijani has also stepped up his criticism of President Ahmadinejad’s actions towards the parliament. Apparently, the administration has refused to implement a number of laws passed by the parliament. Last week, Larijani issued another warning to the president urging him to enforce the laws of the land. According to Iranian law, the speaker of the parliament can warn and remind the president if laws by the parliament are not being enforced by the executive branch.

But the underlying cause of this rift between conservative parliamentarians and the hardliner administration is the desire of Ahmadinejad’s wing of the government to have a monopoly over power in Iran. Since his rise to power in 2005, President Ahmadinejad and his allies in the IRGC have assumed a much larger role in Iranian politics and the Islamic Republic’s power structure than previously afforded to former presidents or IRGC officials. Many argue that Ahmadinejad’s power and influence have even surpassed that of former President Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani when he was president. Ahmadinejad’s power, of course, stems from support from the Supreme Leader and key IRGC officials.

Fearing a complete takeover of power by hardliners, Iran’s moderate conservatives have begun showing a more united front against Ahmadinejad and have increased their criticism of the government’s economic and social policies.