Islamic Revolutionary Council

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The Islamic Revolutionary Council was a secret institution of the Islamic Revolution , which was founded in December 1978 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and operated until the Iranian constitution came into force and the first election of the president. Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari held the presidency until his assassination on May 1, 1979 .

history

composition

The official composition of the Islamic Revolutionary Council has its origins during the exile of Khomeini in France. The "inner circle" founded there initially consisted of the religious scholars Mousavi Ardebili , Mohammad Beheschti , Morteza Motahhari and Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni and had the task of coordinating the Islamic revolution. The Revolutionary Council, which was formed after February 5, 1979, consisted of a secret body of 13 members. In addition to its chairman Mohammad Beheschti, the current supreme legal scholar Seyyed Ali Chamene'i , the later chairman of the Arbitration and Expert Council Rafsanjani, the religious scholars Mohammad Jawad Bahonar , Mohammed Reza Mahdavi-Kani , Hossein Ali Montazeri as well as Mehdi Basargan , Sadegh Sahabi and Ehotzatollah as members.

tasks

The first task of the Revolutionary Council was to organize a defamation campaign against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . It was rumored that the Shah was a drug addict, homosexual and secretly converted to the Zoroastrian or Jewish faith, and that his wife had a relationship with the American President Jimmy Carter . After Khomeini's return to Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Council took over the political decisions to build the Islamic Republic of Iran. Important posts were immediately given to people loyal to the regime, and government offices, courts, military and cultural institutions were cleared of loyal to the Shah. All political decisions, including those of the interim government of Mehdi Basargan , could only be made with the approval of the Revolutionary Council. In principle, this was the predecessor of the Guardian Council . He monitored the qualifications of the candidates with regard to admission to the election of the expert assembly . Furthermore, the Revolutionary Council formed the leadership of the various revolutionary committees.

On November 4, 1979, Khomeini had a statement circulated in memory of the 65 students who were killed one year earlier during demonstrations at Tehran University:

"It is therefore up to the dear pupils, students and theology students to intensify the attacks against the USA and Israel with all their might so that they can force the USA to extradite the deposed and criminal Shah [...]"

This declaration was seen as a justification to storm the American embassy. The obvious conclusion is that without at least the approval of the Revolutionary Council and Khomeini, the US embassy could not have been taken hostage . Drögemüller goes one step further and claims the IRP faction of the Revolutionary Council ( Beheschti-Chamenei-Rafsanjani ) is behind the embassy occupation.

After the resignation of the provisional government of Mehdi Bāzargān on November 5, 1979 due to the hostage-taking of Tehran , the Revolutionary Council took over all government affairs until Abolhassan Banisadr was elected as the first President of the Islamic Republic of Iran on January 25, 1980.

With the declaration of the Revolutionary Council of June 4, 1980, all universities in Iran were closed. Khomeini expressed his fear of a lack of support from students and the faculty with the words: "We are not afraid of military attacks, we are afraid of colonial universities." The background to this was the disruption of Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjan's speech in April 1980 Medical Faculty.

resolution

Mohammad Beheschti officially dissolved the Revolutionary Council with his declaration of July 12, 1980. On February 20, 1980/17. July 1980 now complete Guardian Council took over its function.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ofira Sektar: Navigating Iran . Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, p. 11 (English).
  2. ^ Wahied Wahdat-Hagh : The Islamic Republic of Iran . Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6781-1 , p. 214 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Ofira Sektar: Navigating Iran. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, p. 11.
  4. ↑ a b Michael Naumann, Josef Joffe: Teheran. A revolution is being executed. Munich 1980, p. 214.
  5. ↑ Hans-Peter Drögemüller: Iranisches Tagebuch. 5 years of revolution. Hamburg 1983, p. 240 ff.