Pravda.Ru talked to director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary Iran, Rajab Safarov, about the system of power in Iran, the situation in the country and around it.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, won the presidential election with 17.8 million votes. As many as 28.6 million Iranians took part in the voting. President is not the highest position in the Islamic Republic — he is just the head of the executive branch of power. What system of government does Iran practice?
There is a higher leader, a spiritual leader, there is also a council of guards, an expert council, and other authorities that seem unusual for us. The political system of Iran has developed the most effective mechanism of costs and balances over the period of 42 years. On distant approaches to power, any threat will be neutralised. There is also a multi-level control over the situation in the country in general.
If, God forbid, a politician gets carried away or finds himself under the influence of ideologies of other countries, and this will pose a threat to the values of the Islamic Republic and the political system, this will be quickly identified and suppressed.
The political system of Iran is carefully designed and operates quite effectively. Until now, we have not seen any major domestic crises in Iran, no matter how hard the United States and other enemies of Iran could try.
The top position in the hierarchy of power is taken by the spiritual leader, whose authority is simply indisputable. Practically every Iranian citizen considers the spiritual leader to be their spiritual mentor, a relative even in a way.
Of course, any society has a certain percentage of critically-minded people who will be critical of everything always, under any system of power. This is part of their nature.
I think that they will be unhappy under the American or socialist or any other system — they would be whining under any circumstances, because they are never satisfied with their lives.
The majority — intelligent people — share a very positive outlook towards the spiritual leader. He does not interfere in real politics too often. He may at times give pieces of advice, but those would be like fatherly instructions from a very experienced person.
President comes second. If we compare the political systems of Iran and Russia, then the Iranian president plays the role of the Russian prime minister, who is limited in his functions in politics.
The head of the Iranian executive power branch has colossal opportunities in economy and social sphere. It is the head of the executive branch who is responsible for whether economy is going to develop and whether the standard of living of ordinary people will rise or fall.
The President can do very serious things, since it is the president who sets vectors of development and manages the implementation of specific projects. He manages the entire budget, state revenues, he is in charge of expenditure and so on and so forth.
There are funds associated with the administration of the spiritual leader, where a fairly serious amount of funds is concentrated. They are spent on social projects of the whole society so that the well-being of the Iranian people does not depend on local and departmental capabilities of officials.