Iran's Ayatollah hints at President’s exile

Iran’s supreme leader has implied that the newly re-elected reformist President could follow a similar fate to that of post-revolutionary President, Abolhassan Banisadr, who was impeached and later exiled after clashing with the clerical establishment.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 78, who is believed to have tacitly backed hardliner Ebrahim Raisi in the election, has sharpened his criticism of Hassan Rouhani following the latter’s landslide victory in last month’s election.

In a scornful speech delivered last week to senior officials, including Rouhani, the judiciary chief and the parliamentary speaker, Khamenei said: “Mr President has talked at great lengths about the country’s economy and well, he’s said ‘this should be done’, ‘that should be done’,” Khamenei said. “But who is he addressing by mentioning the ‘should dos’?”

He responded with “Himself.” 

“In 1980-1981 the then president polarised society in two camps, and divided the country into opponents and supporters; this should not be repeated,” Khamenei continued.

Rouhani’s supporters view the leader’s comments and his references to Banisadr as a warning that the new President be headed to similar circumstances.

The President, who increased his mandate by 5 million votes when he won his second term, fired back this week by saying that the political legitimacy of a religious leader is determined by the “people’s will and invitation”.

The power struggle has also seen Rouhani forced to defend his success at the ballot box. Addressing a group of university professors, he referred to Ali ibn Abi Talib, the prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, a revered Shia figure also respected by Sunnis, who became a caliph only when people showed him support. 

“We are not following western beliefs when we’re holding elections and going after people’s votes,” he said, insisting that democracy was not a western gift. “We belong to a religion in which [Imam Ali] based his leadership on people’s will and people’s vote.”