Where is Ahmadinejad? Why Is He Silent?
Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is conspicuously nowhere to be seen these days as Iran experiences its biggest uprising in more than four decades.
Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is conspicuously nowhere to be seen these days as Iran experiences its biggest uprising in more than four decades.
Typically, the camera-loving populist politician would have seized the opportunity to ride the waves of nationwide protests, but he seems to be neither repeating his criticism of the system and its leader Ali Khamenei like an opposition figure, nor supporting the government to benefit from the advantages of being a loyal servant to Khamenei.
The latter, he has never been though, even during his presidency (2005-2013). He fell out with Khamenei in May 2011 over firing the leader's favorite intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi, aka Heidar 007, and even refused to go to work for a couple of weeks.
Ahmadinejad has even cancelled his usual weekly meetings with his supporters in his modest neighborhood in Narmak in eastern Tehran or his office at Velenjak in the affluent northern Tehran, reported pro-reform news website Fararu. "Where is Ahmadinejad?" asked the website in an October 11 report. The economic daily Donya-ye Eqtesad wrote that this is in fact the continuation of his silence since ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi took office as Iran's president in 2011.
Last time the former president was firing shots across the bow was in May-June 2021, before the presidential vote.
Ahmadinejad's former adviser, controversial politician Abdolreza Davari has opined that being in the spotlight while the unrest is continuing is not in the former President's interest.
It is vital for Ahmadinejad to safeguard his position at the Expediency Council although his relations with other council members are extremely limited as they do not like to approach the odd man.
It is important for Ahmadinejad to benefit from the protection his membership in the Council provides, particularly now that he has seen former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani not reinstated by Khamenei as members. Without this membership, he has no official position in Iran whatsoever, Davari told Fararu.
Ali Ghaffarian, the editor of conservative Sarat News told Donya-ye Eqtesad that either Ahmadinejad has decided to be silent or he has been silenced by the government. However, as he is not likely to submit to anything imposed on him, most probably, it is his own decision to remain on the side-lines amid the uprising.
According to Rouydad24, a moderate news website, the regime also benefits from Ahmadinejad's membership in the Expediency Council, because that puts him on a short leash.
Rouydad24 wrote that Ahmadinejad has lost many levers and even many of his close allies in recent years. This has prompted him to present a different picture of his presidency after a decade, hoping that the people have forgotten what they saw particularly after the disputed 2009 election in which the IRGC assisted him to keep the presidency for a second term.
The website wrote that some of Ahmadinejad's comments portray him as more reformist than famous reform front politicians. But he is neither a conservative, nor a reformist. He is a third kind of politician. "One that looks you in the eye and lies," as presidential contestant Mir Hossein Mousavi said in 2009.
His criticism of the latest round of presidential elections in Iran can well apply to his own election particularly in 2009: "You have limited the cyberspace, ban people from assembly. The people do not have a media outlet of their own and you do not listen to them even when they do not take part in elections or cast blank ballots."
Meanwhile, he interprets popular slogans against the two leading political factions as sign of support for himself. But the people have not said a word in his support neither during the past weeks nor at any other time in previous protests since 2017.
During the past decade, Ahmadinejad constantly spoke about change and now that the opportunity has arrived, he has chosen not to talk about it. He has separated himself from the government as much as he possibly could, but lack of visible grassroot support has left him isolated. And with his background it is unlikely that the youngsters who have taken to the streets like an unstoppable flood would see him or his vaguely defined populist plans anywhere in the bigger picture they have in mind for Iran's future. This also applies to the other two former presidents who have even less public support than Ahmadinejad and remain silent about the biggest shock to the Islamic Republic.
Those who are looking for news in Iran will not turn to the state TV, Abdi argued.
Ironically, when hackers interrupted the state TV news program October 8, playing a short clip, most Iranians found out about it through social media reports or on foreign-based satellite TV rather than watching the actual program on the state TV.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Mostafa Hashemi Taba has argued in another interview that the state TV, also known as the Islamic Republic of Iran's Broadcasting organization (IRIB) excels in keeping Iranians uninformed about developments. He added that Iranians no longer trust the state television and the officials who appear on TV.
"When the television broadcasts what only a tiny segment of the population believes, others will inevitably turn their TV sets off and turn their backs to it."
Meanwhile, former IRIB Chief Mohammad Hashemi also criticized IRIB for airing the news only after they have been broadcast on foreign-based satellite channels. Nonetheless, he praised the state TV for countering lies and rumors, without citing an example.
According to Didban Iran [Iran Monitor] website in Tehran, the activity of IRIB's deputy chief for political affairs, which is in charge of news has been reduced to responding to information programs that foreign-based Persian media broadcast about Iranian developments.
IRIB is directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, especially its news and political programming.
The state broadcaster usually repeats what has already been aired during previous hours and sometimes days, adding a spin to please the organization's management and its supreme chief, Khamenei.
During the three weeks since the start of antigovernment protests in Iran, IRIB's most eye-catching output was showing the half-naked image of an Iranian protester abroad, for which the organization was forced to apologize later. It was meant to help the regime’s cause by discrediting protesters, but it touched a raw religious nerve among some insiders.
IRIB’s penchant for one-sided news has deeply annoyed viewers who currently get their news from social media and Persian-speaking satellite TV channels based in Europe and the United States. The viewers no longer trust the media that belongs to and echoes the voice of a government they have ceased to trust for the same reason: Unilateralism, justifying and beatifying the government's often wrong measures and its police brutality in the streets.
IRIB Chief Payman Jebelli has described the organization as "the regime's media outlet," an expression that was also used later by former President Hassan Rouhani. The same thing was said even more elaborately by the chairman of the state TV office in Khorasan Province Mohsen Nasrpour who stated, "the state TV is the mouthpiece of the government and the regime."
This was most recently reiterated by Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, a senior cleric, during a meeting with Jebelli on October 8. According to the Qom Seminary's official website, Bushehri said: "IRIB is the official podium for the Islamic Republic regime."
The people who have been chanting slogans in the streets of almost all major Iranian cities during the past three weeks, saying that they no longer want the Islamic Republic, are not likely to be interested in the same regime's mouthpiece. Following the hacking on Saturday, an Iranian Twitter user commented: "Thank you. Next time, please unplug the entire state television."
Mohammad-Taghi Naghdali (Naqdali) the secretary of Islamic Republic parliament’s legal and judicial committee, and a hardliner cleric, called on the government and the foreign ministry, October 8, to “use capabilities in the international arena” to take steps against Iran International and similar networks that “make calls for riots, destruction of property and regime change.”
Tens of millions of Iranians rely on social media and satellite TV channels to receive news and information that Iranian government-controlled media deny them. Iran International, BBC Persian, Manoto TV and US financed media beam programs to Iran that provide news, which is censored in local media by the government and its intelligence organs.
As protests began in Iran in mid-September, authorities severely restricted Internet and social media access, leaving the population to rely more on foreign-based television stations for news and information.
The Iranian government has tightly controlled media for over four decades, shutting down hundreds of newspapers and has jailing around 860 journalists over the years.
The Iranian government has been putting pressure on foreign-based Persian speaking media organizations for over a decade. First, websites of Radio Farda, BBC Persian and Voice of America were blocked in early 2003, before Iran International was established. Both radio and TV signals have been jammed and any contact with these media outlets have been punishable by lengthy prison terms.
In 2020, the Iranian judiciary announced confiscation of the properties of those journalists who had left the country and were working for Iran International.
In 2019, Iran’s ambassador in the United Kingdom had lodged a complaint to the British media watchdog Ofcom against the network which is based in London.
In March 2019, Ofcom dismissed the complaint, which related to a specific interview, saying that the network adhered to its guidelines.
At the time, Iran International representatives told the Guardian that the channel “provides fair, balanced and impartial coverage, and abides by its published Editorial Guidelines”, adding that it “covers the widest range of opinions of interest to all Iranians and Farsi speakers”.
However, Tehran continued its attacks against Iran International. In a statement released in November 2019, Iran's Intelligence Ministry said working for the network was "proof of collaboration in terrorist actions with the enemies of Iran" and claimed that it has arrested a number of individuals on charges of sending information to Iran International.
In his attack on the network, the Iranian lawmaker Naghdali specifically mentioned Ofcom, asking the government to take advantage of the watchdog’s existence, which he said “can be used by the foreign ministry and the Judiciary” to go after Iran International.
Iran International dismissed the claims of Mohammad-Taghi Naghdali on Sunday, saying that it adheres to OFCOM broadcasting guidelines. The network said its news coverage provides a platform to Iranian commentators, human rights defenders and civic activists to discuss vital social and political issues.
“Sadly, freedom of the press is denied to Iranian citizens in Iran. They are denied their voice by the Iranian government’s tightly controlled media,” the network's General Manager Mahmood Enayat said.