Mysterious ultraconservative clerical party arises in Iran

A shadowy new ultraconservative party calling itself the Society of Revolutionary Clerics is staking a place in Iranian politics well to the right of Saeed Jalili, the main standard bearer of opposition to the current relatively moderate government.

The party aims to participate in the next Assembly of Experts election, a clerical body responsible for selecting a successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, media commentators have suggested.

With established senior ayatollahs at the Qom Seminary telling media outlets that they are unfamiliar with its members, the party appears to be composed of younger clerics born in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ultra-conservatives already hold the lion’s share of power in the Islamic Republic, with many Reformist politicians and commentators blaming them for the deadlock with the United States and the nation’s ongoing economic crisis.

Several reports in pro-reform and pro-government media have already targeted Saeed Jalili, last year’s runner-up in the presidential race and a key figure linked to the radical Paydari Party, accusing him of hindering the country's development and undermining efforts to lift US and international sanctions.

A report by the moderate conservative Khabar Online website accused Jalili of sabotaging four potential foreign policy initiatives that could have resolved Tehran's diplomatic deadlock and opened the path to lifting sanctions.

Those cases included torpedoing a profitable two-decades-old oil contract with foreign entities, opposing an original international deal over Iran's nuclear program, preventing talks to revive it and blocking bills which could ease Iran's accession to the Financial Action Task force (FATF).

According to the website, Jalili, who operates a shadow government, has established his own network alongside the Paydari Party to advance what it called an "obstruction campaign."

The report, echoed by other Iranian media outlets, also accused Jalili’s allies in Parliament of blocking initiatives aimed at improving Iran’s relations with the West.

Over the years, under Presidents Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, and more recently President Masoud Pezeshkian, moderate politicians including former Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh have unsuccessfully attempted to engage Jalili in a debate over what they see as his unconstructive role.

Particular scrutiny surrounds his tenure as Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when relations with the West cratered.

The new ultraconservative clerical party taking shape is led by previously low-profile figures who are even more hardline than Jalili could augur even more intransigent resistance to an opening with Washington.

Its luminaries include Seyyed Mohammad Aghamiri, a member of the Tehran City Council and a close associate of Tehran’s hardline Mayor Alireza Zakani, along with Morteza Esteghamat, a member of the Mashhad City Council closely aligned with the city’s firebrand Friday Prayers Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda.

The Islamic Republic currently permits two main clerical political parties.

The left-wing "Militant Clerics Association" includes figures such as Reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, Expediency Council member Majid Ansari and Mohammad Ali Abtahi.

The right-wing "Militant Clerics Society" includes Ahmad Alamolhoda and other hardliners like Seyyed Reza Akrami and Seyyed Reza Taqavi.

Over the past 46 years, the right-wing party has maintained dominance over Iran’s unelected institutions. Leading members of both parties have played pivotal roles in shaping nearly every significant event in Iran over the past four decades.

While most members of the two established clerical parties are seminarians, Qom Seminary teachers have told Tehran-based media that they are unfamiliar with any of the members of the emerging party.

Five senior ayatollahs at the seminary including Hosseini Bushehri said they have no knowledge of the 19 male and female clerics who lead the new party, according to Iranian media outlets, deepening the mystery about its personnel and goals.