On August 21, after five days of chaos and disputes over the members of the cabinet proposed by President Massoud Pezeshkian, the Majlis (Parliament) of the Iranian regime approved all his ministers and appointees. This approval came only after the regime’s president repeatedly and disgracefully emphasized that all the ministers were chosen by the regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei himself.
A look at what Pezeshkian said during this session reveals a clear picture of the absolute dictatorship under the rule of the Supreme Leader. Pezeshkian, referring to the ministers of the main ministries, said: “We didn’t choose these individuals without coordination; we coordinated with both the committees and the higher authorities.” He added, “We did nothing without coordination, whether with the lower committees or with the higher-ups [Khamenei]; we coordinated with all those we needed to, including the security agencies, the IRGC, the intelligence organization, and everyone else we had to agree with.”
Pezeshkian demonstrated that under the rule of the Supreme Leader, the Parliament, the government, elections, and other institutions are entirely hollow and staged, serving as nothing more than a cardboard facade to hide the reality of a medieval absolute dictatorship. In response, MP Hamid Rasaee wrote on his X account: “After the unprecedented cost that Pezeshkian incurred from the Leader to approve his cabinet, the entire proposed cabinet was approved by the Parliament.”
The infighting among the members of the staged Parliament, further highlights the scandal: Abdolvahid Fayazi, referring to Khamenei’s orders, said: “It is my duty in this position to defend his chosen options, provided that they renounce the sedition.” Another MP Rahim Zare ridiculed Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and gave him a “constitutional reminder” for not cutting off the microphone of MP Mohammad Bagheri when he let the truth slip by saying: “Mr. [Eskander] Momeni [the proposed Minister of Interior] has been brought in to engineer the next elections, and the next accusation is that there is a deviant group in the Parliament that is planning this.”
MP Abbas Goudarzi also issued a “constitutional reminder” and said: “Some say that not voting for a proposed minister means disrupting unity, which is wrong and indeed a deviation.”
MP Ali Khezrian referred to the 2009 elections, which was followed by a mass uprising, and said: “If it was decided from the beginning that only one person would emerge from the ballot box, then why do they mock the people? Why do they impose all these costs on the system?”
The same sentiment was expressed in the previous session of the regime’s Parliament by Amir-Hossein Sabeti, who in rejecting Pezeshkian’s claim that Khamenei had approved all the cabinet members and said: “If that’s the case, then we should vote for all the ministers and shut down the Parliament.”
It is noteworthy that the so-called reformists within the regime, disillusioned and disappointed by the cabinet proposed by Pezeshkian, had been grumbling in recent days, asking, “What kind of cabinet is this? It’s just a continuation of Raisi’s second administration” Until former president Mohammad Khatami, the godfather of this group, stepped in, calling for an “understanding of the complex and critical current situation and a realistic approach to what has happened and what will happen.”
Following the approval of the cabinet proposed by the parliament, Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of resistance of Iran (NCRI), stated: “Nothing has changed in the government and leadership of the mullahs, and nothing will change. Regarding his new cabinet, Pezeshkian said what he wasn’t supposed to and admitted that Khamenei personally selects and approves the ministers, and everything is done in coordination with the ‘security organizations, the IRGC, the Intelligence Organization, and all those we must reach an agreement with.’ Pezeshkian had initially stated that he joined the administration because he saw the regime in danger, and his agenda was implementing Khamenei’s policies. However, the Iranian people’s agenda is to dismantle Khamenei’s apparatus and the entirety of the regime of Velayat-e Faqih. 124 executions in the past month alone speak volumes about the state of the regime and its new president.”