Reformists keep distance from unrest on streets of Iran
Reformists are keeping their distance from what is unfolding on the streets of Iran, reacting differently than they did during the protests following the disputed 2009 presidential elections.
As protests continue in various Iranian cities, Reformists are asking people to show restraint in expressing their discontent. The protests, originally economic in nature and later expanded to include other grievances, have not been welcomed by Reformists inside Iran.
Having initially targeted the conduct of the executive branch, protesters gradually targeted other pillars of the establishment as verbal attacks against the Reformists and the person of the president subsided.
The protests started Dec. 28 in the northeastern cities of Mashhad and Neishabur; this led some analysts to suggest that President Hassan Rouhani’s main rival in the May 2017 elections, Ebrahim Raisi, and his father-in-law, Ahmad Alamolhoda, were behind the organization of these protests, with the aim of putting pressure on the administration. Raisi is the custodian of the Astan-e Quds Razavi charitable foundation in Mashhad, and his father-in-law is the Friday prayers leader there. The suggestion that Raisi and Alamolhoda were involved became more plausible when Iran's first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, said the protests were organized by those opposing the administration. On Dec. 29, Jahangiri said, "Some people are using the economy as means for attacking the administration. Something is going on behind the scenes and it needs to be identified."
A prominent Reformist member of parliament from Tehran, Mahmoud Sadeghi, had a different view when he wrote on Twitter the same day, "Even if these protests were pre-organized, it is still better for officials to try to find a solution to people's problems instead of looking for conspiracy theories."
