Iran’s Guardian Council Bans “Reformists” From Parliamentary Election

Would-be Candidates Would Have Pledged Same Loyalty To Khamenei As “Moderate” Rouhani

(New York, N.Y.) – On February 21, Iran will commence its first parliamentary elections since 2016. After violently repressing mass protests in November and January, killing hundreds of demonstrators and blocking internet usage, officials in Tehran have now excluded thousands of reformist candidates from the ballot. In response, President Hassan Rouhani has criticized Iran’s Guardian Council, responsible for the vetting of candidate applicants, for their mass disqualifications. But the stronghold by hardline Iranian officials over the electoral process is nothing new.

Since his victory in the Iranian presidential election in 2013, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani – a politician and cleric – has been incorrectly painted in Western media as a “reformist” and a “moderate.” In reality, Rouhani is no more of a reform-minded outsider than anyone else willing to pledge their loyalty to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This includes the “reformists” that sought access to the ballot in the upcoming election.

Candidates for office in the Islamic Republic are dedicated to the preservation of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and fealty to the Supreme Leader. The myth of moderation built around Rouhani was constructed to offer diplomatic cover for the Islamic Republic’s ongoing domestic repression and destabilizing regional activities. The would-be “reformist” candidates could not have behaved any more moderately than Rouhani, whose tenure has coincided with ongoing proxy wars, sanctions busting schemes, contamination of the international banking system, kidnappings, plots against European civilians, the murder of Iranian protesters, arming and financing terror groups, uranium enrichment beyond agreed upon limits and worse.

A key benefit of the Iran nuclear deal, proponents of the agreement argued, would be the moderation of the Iranian regime in exchange for financial support. That goal turned out to be wishful thinking. Iran instead used billions of dollars received as a result of the nuclear deal to fuel its malign behavior.

UANI’s resource, Moderation Mythbuster, details the regime’s total disregard for its commitments and its continued aggressive and threatening behavior. By tracking developments in Iran’s nuclear program, human rights abuses, regional destabilizing activities, sponsorship of terrorism, and demonization of the United States, the resource is able to clearly show that the Iranian regime has not moderated as a result of the JCPOA and has in fact adopted a more hardline approach both in its domestic and foreign policy, especially in recent months.

The solution is not to feign support for what passes for a “moderate” in Iran. It is to insist that Iran itself change its behavior and comport itself in ways that align with international norms and standards if it wishes to end its isolation.

To read UANI’s resource, Hassan Rouhani: The Ultimate Regime Insider, please click here.

To read UANI’s resource, Moderation Mythbuster, please click here.