Siavash ardalan biography of williams

They have done this just once - when they convened immediately after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to choose Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as his successor in Their second duty is to oversee the Supreme Leader's performance and depose him if he "fails to fulfil his duties".

Siavash ardalan biography of williams: “It's really politics in

This sounds like a very important job given that the Supreme Leader is not only legally the "absolute" ruler, with the final say on all state matters, but also appoints the heads of some of the most powerful authorities in Iran. These include: the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, the head of state TV and radio, the head of the judiciary, and the heads of numerous semi-official and wealthy religious foundations - to mention but a few.

Advocates of the Iranian regime are quick to point out that the Supreme Leader is chosen by the people because the Assembly of Experts is chosen by the people. The latter part of this proposition is true.

Siavash ardalan biography of williams: Ebrahim Yazdi was an Iranian politician,

The election for the Assembly of Experts is held every eight years. The idea of having an Assembly of the Leader's Experts came in the early days of the revolution, when the authors of the new constitution presented their own version of a checks-and-balances mechanism in order to show that the Supreme Leader was not exempted from accountability.

The first Supreme Leader was too revered to be even mildly criticised, let alone held accountable. His successor managed to transform the assembly into one that protects him from accountability rather than subject him to it. Not only are some members of the Assembly of Experts appointees of the Supreme Leader in other institutions, but his appointees in one particularly powerful institution - the Guardian Council - also decide who can become a candidate in the election for the Assembly.

The end result has been a seemingly idle body of clerics who do little more than rubber-stamp the Supreme Leader's policies and edicts.

Siavash ardalan biography of williams: This article redefines sectarianism as

Those clerics among them who are more influential and respected - the "jurisprudents" - go to various lengths to explain why the Supreme Leader ought to be obeyed rather than checked. The BBC Persian Service, an all-Farsi satellite channel based in London, is banned by the regime, as are the ubiquitous satellite dishes, but every day it transmits the concerns of Iranians reaching out from inside the country via phone, email and text messages.

This week, despite spotty phone and Internet access, they still managed to call in reports of their experiences. Siavash Ardalan is one of the hosts of the talk show Your Turn. He says that they've been relying on citizen journalists in Iran for reporting and footage, including some disturbing tape of students being beaten by paramilitary forces in the Iranian city of Esfahan.

This is the extreme of the kinds of images that we get. What our audience want now is just to see that there is such huge rallies as the oceans of people who have taken to the streets inside the capital and other cities, and this is the kind of material they send us. Can you share that? Mr Zarif is one of the few cabinet members with his own Facebook page and Twitter account, which he used last week to wish Jews a "Happy Rosh Hashanah".

He also used Twitter to assert that the Iranian government had never denied the Holocaust, adding: "The man who was perceived to be denying it is now gone. He was referring to Mr Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who during his eight-year presidency frequently claimed the Holocaust was a lie. Mr Zarif's tweet made headlines, but not as many as an earlier one that also wished Jews a happy new year, which appeared to come from the president.

Mr Rouhani's office was swift to tell reporters that the message had come from an account set up by a supporter, and was not an official statement. However, some critics expressed scepticism, claiming that Iran's reformist politicians were intentionally muddying the waters over who operated social media accounts in their name so they could test public opinion and disavow messages that angered hardliners.

The foreign ministry's decision to appoint a female spokesperson was a deliberate signal to both its domestic audience and the international community.

Siavash ardalan biography of williams: [31] Siavash Ardalan, Khaṭar

But it began with a PR blunder. Within a week of Marzieh Afkham's appointment, her supposed Facebook page received 25, "likes" - a huge figure in a country where access to the site is blocked. As it turned out, a week later the whole venture was a hoax carried out by an exiled activist. President Rouhani has given the foreign ministry responsibility for Iran's nuclear negotiations.