Maryam Rajavi: Nothing has changed in the Iranian government and leadership of the mullahs, and nothing will change
· Regarding his new cabinet, Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said what he wasn’t supposed to and admitted that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei personally selects and approves the ministers and that everything is done in co-ordination with the “security organizations, the IRGC, the intelligence organization and all those with whom we have to reach an agreement”. Pezeshkian had initially stated that he joined the administration because he saw the regime in danger and that his agenda was to implement Khamenei’s policies.
· But the Iranian people’s agenda is to dismantle Khamenei’s apparatus and the entire regime of Velayat-e Faqih (religious rule).
· 124 executions in the last month alone speak volumes about the state of the regime and its new president.
In the midst of a new wave of executions, Iran’s new president, stressing his and his ministers’ loyalty to the Velayat-e Faqih, made a desperate appeal to the Majlis (Iran’s parliament) to approve his cabinet in order to tackle the ongoing crises. He warned that without such approval: “I doubt if we can get out of these crises.”
Pezeshkian, in his bid to win the approval of the regime’s warring factions in this power struggle, was forced to lift the veil and expose Khamenei’s hand, saying: “Why do you make me say things I shouldn’t?” He added: “We did nothing without co-ordination, whether with the lower committees or at the top [with Khamenei], with those we had to coordinate with… We agreed with all those we had to agree with, including the security organisations, the IRGC, the intelligence organisation, and all those we had to agree with”.
Pezeshkian admitted, for example, that Khamenei’s telephone order appointed the minister of culture, and that the only woman introduced as minister of roads and urban development in that cabinet was chosen because, as he put it, “it was the Leader himself who said she should be appointed”. Similarly, “Araghchi, the foreign minister, was the first minister approved by him (Khamenei). Even before the list of ministers was discussed, he approved him.
Maryam Rajavi (pictured), president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, noted that all this clearly shows that the new mullahs’ government, like previous governments, is merely a tool in the hands of Khamenei and the IRGC. It shows no deviation from the main policies of the regime, especially in terms of repression, plunder, nuclear projects, terrorism and foreign warmongering. Not surprisingly, Pezeshkian today addressed the regime’s parliament about himself and his ministers: “Believe us, it’s not as if someone would come in opposition to Velayat (Khamenei) and I would compromise with them.” He even vowed: “By God, we are determined to achieve the vision set by the Supreme Leader.”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
