Political 'Purification' Leads To Rift At The Top, Says Politician

A conservative Iranian politician has alleged that those advocating "political purification,” aim to unseat Parliament (Majles) Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf."

The term "purification" was coined by former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani to characterize ultraconservative allies of President Ebrahim Raisi, who wish to dominate the government by pushing out all other politicians and officials.

Mansoor Haqiqatpoor told Entekhab website on Saturday that "the refit between Speaker Ghalibaf and President Ebrahim Raisi has developed into a political faultline."

He said: "I do not think these conflicts are part of a political show. These are real conflicts. This is the continuation of the political purification initiative, and those who are behind it see Ghalibaf as an obstacle on the way to reaching their objectives and wish to get rid of him."

According to Entekhab, conflicts between Ghalibaf and Raisi have been intensifying recently as the ultraconservative Paydari Party, where the bulk of Raisi's supporters are, has been launching more serious attacks on Ghalibaf, blaming him for the government's problems. 

Haqiqatpoor went on to say that Paydari's members had started challenging Ghalibaf's authority from the very beginning of the current Majles in 2020. He reiterated that after getting rid of former Speakers Larijani and Nateq Nouri and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Paydari Party now seems to be adamant to omit Ghalibaf from the Iranian political scene. 

He added that the ruling ultraconservatives are too arrogant to accept their responsibility in the government's economic, political and cultural failures and try to put the blame on Ghalibaf. 

Haqiqatpoor said that Ghalibaf has now realized that the presence of reformists and moderates in the parliament would have been in his interest because they could have counterbalanced Paydari's pressure. 

He said: "I hope those on top of the government, - presumably Khamenei and his aides - are intelligent enough to prevent handing over the government to a group that would push the Islamic Republic toward an abyss."

In the meantime, a similar purification process appears to be going on in the Iranian academic centers. A university professor, Ali Sharifi Zarchi wrote in a tweet on August 18 that "based on a document circulating in Iran's academic circles, the Raisi administration has secretly started the urgent process of hiring 15,000 faculty members without observing due scientific standards. This is a catastrophe, which, for instance, leads to hiring 100 non-experts for every medical school." Calling on the academics to protest against the action, Zarchi wrote: "The silence of the academic and scientific community [in the face of this action] will be a treason against Iran."

Meanwhile, Iranian journalist Maryam Shokrani has confirmed Zarchi's warning and further reported that "According to Farhikhtegan daily, following the dismissal of a large number of faculty members at the University of Tehran, Sharif University, Teachers Training University, and the University of Science and Technology and several medical schools have been demoted."

In another development, reformist journalist Mohammad Sadeq Javadi Hesar reminded the Raisi administration that what has kept the country backward is the absence of experts rather than the need for political purification. He added that getting rid of experts and highly qualified personnel has deprived the country of the growth and development it deserves. 

He further said that the political purification is based on the old idea of insiders versus outsiders which has divided the country and alienated many for several decades now.