This is a Story that Goes Back Years
Oct 25th, 2009 by pedestrian
From left: Ayatollah(s) Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Beheshti
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From the Memoirs of Hashemi Rafsanjani
Saturday, October 24th, 1981
I had nothing specific to do in parliament today. I wanted to stay home and do some research. Effat [his wife] was alone and was busy preparing Fati and Faezeh’s [his daughters] dowry who were getting married. She expected me to help out and I had more important things planned. I went to parliament.
In parliament, the primary issue right now is choosing a vice president. After meeting with the Imam [Khomeini] and getting the party’s approval, Mr. Khamenei [the president] has nominated Mr. Mohammad Gharazi [the oil minister under Mousavi and the minister of communications under Rafsanjani]. But their are widespread disagreements with this. Sepah [IRGC], the Mojahedin [Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization - the party Behzad Nabavi leads], the Modarresin [the Teachers' Association of Qom Seminaries, a very conservative body], some independents and a few from the Islamic Republic party [the party Beheshti headed] have called and stated their disapproval.
In the afternoon, I participated in the parliamentary committee for internal affairs. The Central Intelligence proposal was being debated. There was disagreement between the Sepah and the vice presidents office. The role of the IRGC in the proposal is fighting anti-revolutionary forces and so they want to be head of the intelligence of this unit as well. I finally intervened and agreement was reached by all sides and the proposal was to be changed.
In the evening, Mr. Tabasi arrived from Mashad [who has headed the Astan-e Qods-e Razavi - the Imam Reza Shrin Foundation for the past three decades. This is basically a huge corporation that runs factories, land, etc which belong to Imam Reza's shrine in Mashad.] There was legislation to take back property that had once belonged to the Astan-e Qods, from those who had gotten them during the monarch’s time using their connections. They [Tabasi] wanted total authority over this. I think their demand must be processed by the courts.
Early in the evening, Behzad Nabavi arrived with some friends. They were there to state their disapproval with Mohammad Gharazi’s nomination. They said: Because Mr. Khamenei decisively made this announcement, nobody stated disapproval but Mr. Mahdavi Kani [the VP at the time] has later said that he doesn’t necessarily want to step down. I spent the night at the majles [parliament]. Today, Iraq launched an air strike on Abadan and one hundred and fifty homes were demolished in the bombings. Our defense system was too weak or was to blame.
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Very interesting these memoirs by Rafsanjani. As a professor (Sharif grad) who was very involved in the revolution (participated in the holy defense and even went to howze for a few years) told me a few months ago… “We sometimes find it hard to understand why some individuals who are in important positions and whom we expect to take particular action do the opposite of that. But what we need to realize mainly is that our data inputs are incomplete and perhaps not the competency of those few individuals that is incomplete. We perhaps receive 20% of the data input that they receive and so we judge based on that 20% input that is there.”
With that in mind, there could be nothing more golden from a historical perspective and in coming up with a political exegesis for Iran than Khamenei’s memoirs. But that’s a long desire probably never to be met.
Tsubasa,
I had long avoided reading Rafsanjani’s memories because “they would be biased.”
But now I’ve decided to read them (I think they were published in 3 volumes). Getting the “biased” views of a couple of people (K.’s would be great!) can give us a better view of what really went on.