Men in plain clothes have disrupted or canceled a number of events in Iran recently. A former official from Mohammad Khatami’s administration believes that "rogue" forces, sensing a danger to their interests, have become active again in Iran.

“The phenomenon of rogue elements has two aspects,” Morteza Mobalegh, former Deputy Interior Minister under Khatami’s Reformist administration, told Etemaad. “One aspect is the individuals in the country who only take into consideration their interests and do not submit to rules and regulations.” He said that while the existence of rogue elements is not a new phenomenon, over the years their activity level has ebbed and flowed.

“The second aspect is much more important than the first,” he continued. “Their relationship with some apparatuses is such that in no way do they sense danger in their illegal activities. If the necessary confrontations with them would take place, they would not give themselves permission to break norms. This is while these apparatuses, on other issues that they determine to be illegal, confront with speed and intensity. One has to ask why these [rogue forces] have a sense of security but others do not.”

Mobalegh said that the only way to address this problem was for the government institutions to confront the rogue forces, adding, “All of the apparatuses of the country have a responsibility to create order and implement the law and should know that all must be equal before the law and there must be no double standards.”