After the faction affiliated with Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei took over two branches of power, the legislature, and the judiciary, now the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is seeking to participate in the 2021 presidential election and take power over Iran’s executive branch.
Hossein Dehghan, one of the IRGC commanders who is one of the Supreme Leader’s advisors, on September 28, announced that he will participate in the election and will nominate himself. Referring to his decision he said: “I will come with power and I believe that people should be saved from this current situation.”
The Most Important Concern of the Government
There are about eight months left until the 2021 presidential election. But the country’s political circles are already preparing to participate, and this has become their main concern.
Last year, Khamenei expressed his desire for the next government, saying he wanted a “young Hezbollahi government.” But before considering the youthful character that Khamenei has named, it is a characteristic of being Hezbollahi. Khamenei, by engineering the parliamentary elections and brought in a large number of IRGC officers into the parliament as representatives, showed that he has decided to have a complete contraction in the country.
Khamenei’s ‘House’ and the Shadow Government
Khamenei and his faction have so far been in charge of the country’s main affairs as a shadow government. As the contradictions in society become more complex, they can no longer deal with government affairs from behind. For this reason, Khamenei and his faction have decided to take over the affairs of the country and appoint a military government to rule the country by appointing an IRGC member to the presidency, Iran watchers say.
The arrival of Hossein Dehghan in the elections and the announcement of his candidacy sooner than any other candidate is a sign that the so-called conservative current affiliated has already made its decision. In fact, it is Khamenei who has made such a decision and will try to pull his candidate out of the ballot box by engineering the 2021 elections, Iran experts argue.
Dehghan and Head of the Ministry of Defense
Dehghan has a history of leading the Ministry of Defense in the tenth government. He is known among the IRGC commanders as a so-called moderate who will be able to strike a balance between the reformist and conservative forces in the governing body.
However, the upcoming U.S. elections are very important for the current rulers of Iran. Current President Hassan Rouhani and Khamenei are hoping that U.S. President Donald Trump will not be re-elected and with the arrival of Joe Biden, the wall of the sanctions will crack. But on the other side, Khamenei knows very well that even with the arrival of Biden, he will not be able to easily overcome the sanctions barrier. And unlike Barack Obama’s era, he will not be able to sign another treaty and get planes full of dollars.
Weakening Economy
The Iranian government has become so economically weak over the past two-and-a-half years under sanctions that they expect daily that the deprived and poor people, who live under the burden of poverty, hunger, and coronavirus, will rise up and ignite a nationwide and subversive protest. Khamenei has clearly realized that he will not get rid of this national uprising. So, he has tried to consolidate the government as much as possible. Experts say he has decided, if necessary, to free himself from any popular uprising by establishing a military government.
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