Only 3 Men Know Iran's Next Supreme Leader Candidates

One day after Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi warned his officials on September 7 to prevent their children's immigration to other countries, social media activists revealed that Vice President Ensieh Khazali's son has been living in Canada for several years.

Raisi had even warned that if an official's offspring migrates from Iran, the father needs to resign and follow his child. He obviously never thought that the next official whose son's immigration will be revealed could be a woman.

Khazali denied the report about her son's immigration and said he was on a short visit to Canada to further "knowledge-based" research. This is one of the favorite terms of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has nicknamed the current year as "the year of knowledge-based production."

Subsequently, Iranians on social media revealed that Khazali's son, Hamid Rezazadeh, has been running a company in Canada, which sells VPNs to Iranians who need to circumvent government censorship of the Internet. Ms. Khazali is an advocate of limiting Iranians' access to the Internet.

Iranians have been particularly angry about an intensified government effort r to further limit access to social media and websites by slowing down internet connection and other technical measures.

Some asked Ms. Khazali why her son did not go to Russia or China for "knowledge-based” research. Iranian cleric Rahmatollah Bigdeli in a series of tweets called on Khazali to resign and at the same time, revealed that some other officials’ children including Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, and former Majles Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel are also living abroad.

Iranian hardliners usually frown at the immigration of the officials’ family members and some like former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani were barred from running in elections.

A figure of 5,000 family members of senior officials living abroad was cited in 2020 by Mohammad Gharazi, a former minister. In November 2021, Alireza Salimi, a member of parliament, suggested that officials under former President Hassan Rouhani, including deputy ministers had moved to Europe due to fears they would be banned from leaving the country.

In 2019, Brian Hook, special representative for Iran (from 2018 to 2020) under President Donald Trump told Iran International that “children of Islamic Republic officials live rich and comfortable lives in the United States and other countries while Iranian people live in terrible conditions.” Hook said this showed “the regime’s hypocrisy.”

In May this year,General Morteza Mirian, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces, claimed that 4,000 relatives of “senior officials” live in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

During a live television show the General said that they should be “tracked” so as not to be allowed back to Iran to take up managerial positions.

On Friday, Iranian sociologist Javad Miri told Etemad Online website that some Iranian officials send their children to the United States and Canada although they always chant slogans in support of the "struggle against arrogant powers." He quoted some officials as saying that sending their children abroad is part of their campaign against "imperialism".

He added: "Some Iranian officials' attitudes toward the West has changed and they see sending their children to Western countries as an opportunity." He added that "Iranian officials wish to strengthen their network within the Iranian government by sending their children to study in the West," presumably to prepare for occupying positions of power when they return to Iran.

The lawmakers led by Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), wrote in a letter published on Thursday, "The United States cannot overlook Ebrahim Raisi’s direct involvement in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including the 1988 organized mass murder of thousands of political prisoners, among whom were women and children, by the Iranian regime."

The lawmakers told the President that “Raisi was a documented member of the Tehran 'death committee,' the group responsible for overseeing the massacre. It is highly concerning that Raisi and other members of the so-called ‘death committee’ have not been investigated and charged with crimes against humanity.” 

Also on Thursday, a group of 500 Iranian-American scientists, academics, and professionals urged Biden to pursue Raisi’s international prosecution, saying that “Raisi does not represent the people of Iran and therefore must be denied entry visa to the US."

Since early August, eight Republican Senators, former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo have asked Biden to deny a visa to Raisi who plans to travel to New York City for the upcoming 77th United Nations General Assembly, which opens on September 13.

Raisi – who is on US and European sanctions list -- did not attend the UN meeting in 2021 and only delivered a video speech. 

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Khazali claimed that her son, Hamidreza Rezazadeh, is on a temporary business trip abroad aimed at enhancing the country’s “knowledge-based sector,” in reference to the Supreme Leader’s call for a knowledge-based economy. 

Ali Khamenei designated the new Iranian calendar year as the year of knowledge-based productivity and job creation. He has been designating slogans for each year in the past decade, such as “Leap in Production”. Iranian officials and organizations try to portray their activities as if they are in line with the Khamenei-designated motto.

Khazali added that her son never planned immigration, “although he is married and independent,” and criticized those who spread the rumor, noting that “Fortunately, the job project is near completion and he will return to the country in the coming months.” 

“Undoubtedly, [efforts] to lay the foundation for knowledge-based activities in the country stem from patriotism,” she said

Calling for her dismissal, university professor and political activist Rahmatollah Bigdeli said, “If I were in Mr. Raisi’s shoes, I would fire Mrs. Khazali not because of her son's stay in Canada, but because of this kind of ridiculous abuse of this year’s designation by the Supreme Leader.”

In early August, an official criticized the high number of “senior officials” whose relatives are living abroad, confirming that there are over 4,000 sons and daughters who have left Iran.

In a conference on Thursday, held two days before the World Suicide Prevention Day, sociology professor Akbar Aliverdinia said that the rate of suicide has increased about 44 percent in the past 20 years. 

He said, in 2001 the number was about four people in every 100,000 per year but currently the figure is over six, describing the rise as shocking. This brings the number annual total for suicides to over 5,000. In comparison, Turkey has an average of 2.5 suicides per 100,000 population.

Aliverdinia added that the data provided by the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization do not express the realities of the society properly because they only measure suicides that lead to death, while the number of attempted suicides is usually 20 times more. 

According to the data released by Iran’s Health Ministry, in the Iranian year 1399 (which ended on March 19, 2021) 100,000 people attempted suicide in the country. The Iranian Legal Medicine Organization says 5,542 people died as a result of suicide in that year.

Most of the people who commit suicide in Iran are married men and from the western provinces of the country, where economic woes are prevalent. There is also a significant correlation between the misery index and number of suicides which are both increasing in the Islamic Republic. 

Amid a dire economic situation, worsening in recent months, over a dozen people committed suicide in the last three months due to dismissal from their jobs and "livelihood problems". 

Online media, including Rouydad24 website on September 7, quoted reformist academic Fayyaz Zahed as saying that Khatami told him in a recent meeting that "Reformism does not mean opposition to the Islamic Republic system." Fayyaz said that Khatami is still preoccupied with the idea of reforming the Islamic Republic.

Iran's reformists and their de-facto leader Mohammad Khatami, who has never announced himself as a leader, fell out of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's favor long before the end of Khatami's presidency [1997-2005]. However, Khatami was forced into isolation after the disputed re-election of conservative candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 and the ensuing protests.

Since then, Khatami's presence was limited to rare appearances in rare electoral events and in YouTube videos where he called on voters to take part in elections. Even this worked against him when in the 2016 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections the list he advocated included several ultraconservatives with a reputation as thugs.

Meanwhile, the extremely poor and counter-productive performance of the reform faction in the parliament between 2016 and 2020, put the final nail in the reform movement's coffin as many reformist analysts have observed in numerous articles since 2020.

This, along with disqualification of reformist candidates by the Guardian Council, brought their share of the votes in the 2021 election to a humiliating 3 percent.

Fayyaz Zahed quoted Khatami as saying that "Iran's reformist are not in a position they deserve to be. They need to revise their ideas in many areas including their relations with the people. Khatami has also said that reformists need to re-organize."

According to Rouydad24, Zahed was in a meeting with Khatami on September 3 when they discussed current affairs and the reformists. Fayyaz said that "Khatami's main preoccupation is preserving the Islamic Republic." He said Khatami is loyal to the regime and feels indebted to the regime and the legacy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

This has been an important dividing issue in recent years among Iranian political activists at home and abroad. Those favoring regime change argue that Iran’s reformists wrongly think that the clerical-military system can be reformed, and Khatami is in fact the leader of this faction.

Khatami stressed on the rule of law within the Islamic Republic in his meeting. He said that Islam cannot support despotism, Zahed observed and added that Khatami still believed in his theory of dialogue among civilizations.

Oddly enough, Fayyaz said he is not allowed to share Khatami's ideas about reformists' political activity! He only explained that Khatami believed that reforms were the least costly way of correcting governance in Iran.

Other reports on Wednesday indicated that the regime under Khamenei was not even prepared to accept moderate conservatives such as Former President Hassan Rouhani. One report observed that the ultraconservative-dominated parliament still openly brands the Rouhani administration as the culprit for the current economic crisis in Iran. This is an accusation also made several times by President Ebrahim Raisi and his vice presidents and cabinet ministers.

The report observed that although some reformist figures such former vice president Es'haq Jahangiri have become more vocal recently, Iran's conservatives are quick to respond with more accusations, calling on former officials to keep their mouths shut.