PHOTO: Leading Tehran conservative Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a member of the Supreme Leader’s inner circle


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Iran’s conservative factions have finally declared a unified list of candidates for the February 26 elections for Parliament.

Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, a member of the Supreme Leader’s inner circle and a former Speaker of Parliament, said on Sunday that the list had been confirmed, including those for Tehran’s 30 constituencies.

Haddad-Adel said a press conference would be held Monday to give details: “I hope the conservatives across the nation receive Tehran’s conservative message of unity.”

Hardliners and many conservatives have feared the success of centrists around President Rouhani and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, possibly allied with reformists, in the ballot. However, they have struggled to agreed on a slate to present to voters.

Instead, the groups have relied upon the Guardian Council’s disqualification of more than 6,000 candidates — 60% of the applicants — including 99% of 3,000 reformist hopefuls for the 290-seat Majlis. The Council also barred almost 80% of the 800 candidates for the Assembly of Experts, the body which chooses the Supreme Leader.

On Friday, the Council reinstated about 1,500 Parliamentary applicants. It is unclear how many of them are centrists and reformists.

The names on the conservatives’ Tehran list include Haddad Adel; Alireza Zakani, a critic of the Rouhani Government and the nuclear deal with the 5+1 Powers; Ahmed Tavakoli, a relative of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani; and prominent hardline cleric Morteza Agha-Tehrani.


Supreme Leader: We Need Self-Sufficient Economy to Resist West

The Supreme Leader has repeated his call for a “Resistance Economy”, so Iran can resist any pressure from the US and other countries.

Addressing Army and Air Force commanders, Ayatollah Khamenei declared, “The top worldly global powers have been opposing Islamic System and never succeeded.”

Khamenei launched the term “Resistance Economy” in 2012, amid US-led sanctions, to proclaim a strategy in which Iran could survive.

The Islamic Republic has been beset by serious economic difficulties since then — not only because of sanctions but also because of mismanagement, fall in production, and corruption — but the Supreme Leader maintained today, “If economy becomes resistant domestically, most of problems such as unemployment, recession and inflation will be solved.”

khoemeini military ceremony 02-16