Jun 2, 2014

A video leaked online of the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard saying that the Reformists' return to power in the 2009 elections was a “red line” for them is proof of election fraud, some are saying.

Mohammad Nourizad, one of Iran’s most outspoken politician dissidents, uploaded to his Facebook page an edited video of the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Ali Jafari, discussing the 2009 elections and the subsequent crackdown on protests. The video has been shared over 4,000 times.

In the video, Jafari is seen sitting on a stage behind a large desk, addressing other commanders in an auditorium. Sitting front and center is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to the Revolutionary Guard, Ali Saeedi. In an interview with BBC Persian, Nourizad said that the entire video is in his possession, but he did not know the date of the speech.

“The sensitivity of the [2009] presidential elections is clear for all of you,” Jafari says at the beginning of the approximately five-minute Facebook video. “The concern and worry that existed, and the red line that existed for the forces of the revolution, is again the return of those opposed to the revolution and the values of the revolution, that during the 2nd of Khordad found an opportunity and penetrated the government, for them to return to power once again.”

By “2nd of Khordad,” Jafari was referring to the 1997 election won by Reformist President Mohammad Khatami in a landslide victory. Khatami brought into his a cabinet a number of Reformist figures, who pushed many of the political and cultural boundaries of the Islamic Republic beyond the point conservatives could handle. The fissures inside the government became so deep that Khatami’s Culture Minister Ata’ollah Mohajerani was forced to resign, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah) signed a letter to Khatami warning him that its patience was running out and Ayatollah Khamenei condemned some newspapers as serving as the "base of the enemy." There was also an assassination attempt on prominent Reformist theoretician Saeed Hajjarian that left him partially paralyzed.