Elimination of Hassan Khomeini from the election charade by Khamenei’s orders despite advice to the contrary by renowned figures and government officials

After two weeks of intense conflict at the top of the regime, the Guardian Council conclusively rejected the competence of Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the velayat-e faqih regime, for the candidacy of the Assembly of Experts. “His Ijtihad [an Islamic term meaning independent reasoning] fell short of the point to deduce some juridical issues and be able to recognize a vali-e faqih that is competent to lead,” declared the Guardian Council (IRNA and ILNA state news agencies, February 10). This is despite the fact that many renowned mullahs and government officials had suggested Hassan Khomeini’s competence be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Nejatollah Ebrahimian, a judicial member of the Guardian Council and its spokesman, distanced himself from the purging of the candidates, saying: “I have no information on the quantity and quality of the assessment of competencies of the candidates of the Assembly of Experts” and “if in the future his honor [Jannati, Secretary of Guardian Council]… specifies the yardstick used to measure the competencies in the assembly of 12 [Guardian Council has 12 members], I will then offer that information to the media as much as I would know”.
Previously, the Guardian Council had rejected the competence of most candidates from the Rafsanjani and Rouhani faction for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts. As such, by removing the rival factions, the power struggle and the deadly internal crisis at the top of the religious fascism ruling Iran takes on an unprecedented dimension weakening the regime in its entirety.
At the same time, attacks by Khamenei’s faction against Rafsanjani have intensified. Including on February 5 when a number of the mullahs in Khamenei’s faction carried a large placard in the city of Babak in Kerman after the Friday prayers which read: “We demand that the Special Court for Clerics tries Rafsanjani for ‘corrupting the earth’.”
On February 1, on the anniversary of Khomeini’s return to Tehran from Paris, in a ceremony at the Tehran Airport where a large number of regime’s leaders were present, Rafsanjani chastised rejection of Hassan Khomeini’s candidacy. “They do not approve the competence of an individual that is like his grandfather who was the Imam. Who has approved your own competence?!” he said.
He described Khamenei’s supporters who own the “guns”, the “Friday prayer lecterns”, and the “radio and television” as a “minority that enjoys the support of powerful institutions, but the majority of people do not support them”. He went on to add: “If a time comes where the differences deepen, then we should not expect the persistence of the revolution or even Iran.”
In the recent days, in reaction to Rafsanjani’s remarks, the elements, organs, publications and the radio and television affiliated with Khamenei have tagged the signing of the JCPOA and the nuclear deal as treachery; thereby, questioning the “integrity” of Rouhani and Rafsanjani.
Additionally, Khamenei is attempting to overshadow the unbridled internal power struggle on the eve of the elections charade by sham muscle-flexings such as military and missile maneuvers and ramping up support for Bashar Assad resulting in the brutal massacre of the Syrian people, hoping to minimize the dangerous consequences of the elimination of the rival faction for the Iranian regime in its entirety.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 10, 2016