Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued a lengthy warning which links the country’s economic difficulties with the Presidential election in May.
This year is important for country. Both due to need for significant economic measures, and also for the upcoming presidential election.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) March 21, 2017
Speaking at a shrine in Mashhad, Iran’s second city, Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated his long-standing declaration that the “enemy” is trying “to target the nation through the economy”: “By exerting economic pressure, enemy seeks to have the nation disappointed and separated from the Islamic Establishment to reach its own goals.”
Khamenei did not spell out the economic challenges, but Iran — despite a moderate growth rate and a sharp reduction in inflation under the Government of President Hassan Rouhani — has struggled for recovery after implementation of the July 2015 nuclear deal. Amid ongoing US sanctions and internal divisions, Tehran has been unable to confirm essential foreign trade and investment in key sectors such as energy and transportation.
On Monday the Supreme Leader used the declaration of the “Year of Resistance Economy” — his vision of self-sufficiency, first announced in 2010 — to press the Government: “Good tasks [for the economy] were fortunately carried out which was reported to us. However, there is a large gap between what has been carried out, and what the people and what we expect.”
See Iran Daily, Mar 21: Supreme Leader Proclaims “Year of Resistance Economy”
Khamenei did not directly target Rouhani, whose primary conservative-hardline challenger has yet to be named, in Wednesday’s address. Instead, the Supreme Leader used the “enemy” to try and pre-empt any repetition of the mass protests after the 2009 Presidential election, “won” by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite the belief of many that his centrist opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi led the ballot.
In elections, laws must be followed exactly; whatever the election results, it is effectively valid & legitimate.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) March 21, 2017
In 2013 Khamenei accepted Rouhani’s surprise first-round victory, achieved after the Guardian Council disqualified Rouhani’s mentor and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani from standing.
The Supreme Leader maintained yesterday:
I don’t intervene in elections and never tell people to vote for or against some, but I do intervene if anyone stands against people’s vote.
I anticipate an inclusive and vibrant elections, and I hope the election results will lead to prosperity and divine consent.
Mousavi, fellow 2009 candidate Mehdi Karroubi, and Mousavi’s wife, artist and academic Zahra Rahnavard, have been held under strict house arrest since February 2011. The Supreme Leader has refused appeals for a fair, open trial for the trio, accused of leading “sedition” — the regime’s term for the post-2009 protests.
