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2015-03-11 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Ayatollah Yazdi elected Assembly of Experts chairman

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Posted by Fred 2015-03-11 00:00|| || Front Page|| [9 views ] Top
File under: Govt of Iran

#1 Which removed one of the obstacles for naming a replacement for Supreme Leader Khamenei (part of the Assembly of Experts' duties.)

Background: Ayatollah Yazdi is a hardliner (surprise,) but he is a fundamentalist scholar rather than a politician. He is, or was, considered an outside chance to replace Khameini:

Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, 80. Professor “Crocodile” (or Temsah, which mockingly rhymes with Mesbah), is close to Khamenei and spearheads the fiery fringe of the ultraconservative right, also known as the Principlists. At one stage, he ardently backed then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the rising star of the younger generation of neoconservatives (other than their generally lay, security backgrounds, “neoconservatives” are almost ideologically indistinguishable from the clerical “ultras”).

Mesbah-Yazdi presides over the Haqqani seminary, a leading hardline institution in Qom where notable pro-regime clerics – especially ministers of Intelligence – have been schooled, and openly abhors democracy in favor of an absolutist interpretation of clerical rule. More than this, he publicly encourages violence against reformers, whom he infamously likened to the AIDS virus. Among the clerical ultras, Mesbah-Yazdi also possibly represents such figures as secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who might have been a candidate himself but for his advanced age (87).

However, Mesbah-Yazdi’s extreme comments disturb even some among the hardline conservatives and little evidence exists to suggest he enjoys widespread support in general, let alone for the top job. Besides, there is also his starting age. (Khomeini, exceptionally, became Supreme Leader at the age of 77.)

Posted by Pappy 2015-03-11 15:40|| 2015-03-11 15:40|| Front Page Top

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