A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned the establishment that if the ninth parliament is not “healthy”, the coming year may be a year of “bloodshed.”
FARS news agency reported that General Aubnoosh told a gathering of Guardian Council watchmen in Qazvin: “If the results of the parliamentary elections are not in line with our values, the coming year will be so dangerous it may even lead to bloodshed.”
He recommended great care in choosing people who can run for election and thorough investigation before announcing candidate eligibility.
The ninth parliamentary elections of Iran will take place next year, and the Guardian Council determines the eligibility of candidates and supervises the election process.
Commander Aubnoosh went on to laud the actions of the Supreme Leader in confronting the so-called “sedition” referring to the protest movement that has challenged the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in 2009.
He warned, however, that this movement is now moving toward “coalition with another movement called the deviation.” He predicted greater “complexity and difficulty” in future elections.
Ahmadinejad’s victory in the last presidential election was challenged by two reformist candidates, MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who after a year of government pressure and isolation were finally put under house arrest last month for rallying their supporters to a march on February 14 in support of the recent Arab uprisings.
Since Mousavi and Karroubi are both considered pillars of the Islamic Republic, their refusal to accept the Ahmadinejad’s administration and their continued criticism of government policies has led to deep divisions in the upper echelons of power in the Islamic Republic.
“We had a group referred to as the reformists that we had to confront in May of 1997, and that past sedition is the same as this one,” Aubnoosh said; “But now there is also something called deviation, which will need greater alertness to identify because it is more complicated.”
Aubnoosh did not elaborate on this “deviation movement” but the reformists have repeatedly warned the establishment that failing to respond adequately to the reformist demands may lead to more extremist forces taking over the protests.
