Arash Aramesh

In an interview with the conservative Panjereh weekly, Mohsen Rezai, the former commander of IRGC and presidential candidate in Iran’s disputed June 12 election, speaks openly about rifts within the conservative establishment and disagreements with the reformists, including Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Rezai claims that the events of the June 12 election hurt the ideals of the revolution and unified the “counter-revolutionaries.”

Rezai’s remarks come at a time when the Islamic Republic is facing numerous challenges at home and abroad. While the disputed results of the June 12 election have alienated a large segment of the Iranian population, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration is also faced with enormous pressure from the international community on Iran’s nuclear program. Rezai is a well-known conservative with a proven revolutionary track record. He served as the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for almost twenty years. He has ties to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and former president Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the chairman of the Assembly of Experts.

Rezai emphasizes talks he held with senior conservative figures, such as Ali Larijani, the speaker of parliament, to run a candidate who was able to form a coalition government. Rezai, who also sits on the Expediency Council, says that in various meetings with Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s mayor, and Ali-Akbar Velayati, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and current senior advisor to the Supreme Leader, they reached a conclusion that a victory for the reformists would be a defeat for the conservative camp.

Yet, he says, they predicted that four more years of Ahmadinejad would cause more damage to the Islamic Republic. It was at that time when senior conservatives decided to run a candidate who was both competent and loyal to the system.

According to Rezai, a consensus candidate was to be chosen, but conservative leaders never reached a consensus. Rezai also claims that senior conservatives such as Larijani and Nategh-Nouri, a presidential candidate who lost against Mohammad Khatami in 1997, were willing to work with Ahmadinejad if he agreed to forma a coalition cabinet. In a meeting, Ahmadinejad told a group of conservatives that he did not need their support and they could do what they deemed appropriate.

Rezai’s criticism is not limited to Ahmadinejad. He believes Moussavi surrounded himself with a number of radicals and extremists. He asserts that Moussavi should have pursued his accusations of election fraud through legal means and through the 12-member Guardian Council, a body of clerics and laymen. This approach, Rezai claims, would have significantly reduced tensions and prevented the bloody incidents in the weeks following the June presidential election.

When asked about his ties to former President Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Rezai responded by saying that the two held different views on many issues. But he added that , “Mr. Hashemi has always been and still is a supporter of the Leader.” In recent months, there have been reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani had major differences over key issues.