September 11, 2015 15 News & Analysis In Iran, a father and son vie for nation’s future

Ali Alfoneh approve parliamentary legislation before it becomes law. He also has a seat in the , Washington so he will be among the clerics who will appoint a successor to Su- hmad Jannati and his preme Leader when son are sym- he steps down or dies. bols of the growing gen- The elder Jannati made great sac- erational gap within the rifices as he climbed the ladder of political elite of Iran. power. Before the revolution, he AJannati the elder perceives him- was imprisoned three times during self to be the custodian of the revo- the reign of the shah and endured lutionary legacy of the late Grand three years of internal exile in Asa- . dabad, close to the north-western Jannati the younger has dedicated mountain city of Hamadan. himself to reforming the Islamic After the 1979 Islamic Revolu- Republic in an attempt to adapt the tion, he sacrificed his own son Mo- regime to a society very different hammad-Hassan, who was a mem- than the one seized by Khomeini ber of the Mujahideen-e Khalq in 1979. opposition group and was killed in Both men can’t win. One is a gun battle with the Islamic Revo- bound to prevail over the other and lutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the winner will play a major role in 1982. defining the values of the Islamic Ali Jannati, 66, also started his Republic as it emerges into what career as a radical and was a com- Older Jannati. June 2014 photo shows ’s Chief Ahmad Jannati (L) attending an could be a new era. rade-in-arms of Mohammad Mon- event with Iranian leaders on the 25th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in . Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 89, a tazeri, the militant son of Grand native of the village of Ladan near Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri. , south of Tehran and capi- With the SAVAK, the shah’s infa- suburbs. In Syria, and later in Ku- ing organisation as an alternative to The critics of the minister in- tal of the Safavid dynasty in the mous secret police, hunting him, wait, the men established the core the futile effort of jamming foreign clude his own father. 16th century, patiently climbed the Ali fled in 1975, first to Pakistan of what is known as al-Quds Force, media broadcasts to Iran. “The enemy is engaged in soft ladder of power in the regime and and then, with help from the Fatah the extra-territorial operations On top of this, Ali Jannati has warfare against the regime of the has a seat at the apex of power. Movement, to Syria. branch of the IRGC that is active in also had publicised meetings Islamic Republic… People who fun- He serves as secretary of the There he was reunited with Mo- the Syrian and Iraqi wars. with former President Moham- damentally do not believe in the Council of Guardians, which vets hammad Montazeri in Palestinian But after the 1979 revolution, Ali mad Khatami, which the hard-line path of the Imam and the martyrs candidates for elections and must training camps in the Damascus gradually distanced himself from media, such as the Kayhan daily, and want to allow Western culture paramilitary activities and by the condemns as acts of “reconcilia- to enter this country are trying to early 1980s, he had become a pro- tion with the leaders of sedition”, a be in control of the affairs,” Ayatol- tégé of , reference to the Green Movement’s lah Jannati said a few months after then parliamentary speaker and protests against the fraudulent Rohani was elected president. later president. June 12, 2009, presidential election. “They’re trying to get hold of Today, Ali Jannati, the minister money and power by cooperating of culture and Islamic propagation, Ahmad Jannati and with the foreigners.” The person remains in the camp of Rafsanjani in charge of cultural affairs in the and President Hassan Rohani, seen his son Ali Jannati Islamic Republic, of course, is his in the West as pragmatists seeking are symbols of the son Ali. to open Iran to the outside world. growing For now, Ali Jannati has managed In this capacity, Ali Jannati has generational gap to stay on course and ignores the launched a debate about allowing critics but the regime in Tehran is women to sing in public and even within the political at a crossroads and must soon de- for the legal production and dis- elite of Iran. cide between the father or the son, tribution of rap the legacy of the Khomeinist revo- music. After a few attempts to ease The younger Jannati’s attempts lution or reform and liberalisation. restrictions on publishers and au- to liberalise the cultural policies of The Islamic Republic can’t have it thors, Jannati also called for easing the Islamic Republic, along with his both ways. internet filtering in Iran. widely publicised meetings with Separately, Ali Jannati consist- Khatami, have provoked strong Ali Alfoneh is a specialist on Iran ently emphasises the importance criticism from the conservative- and the Islamic Revolutionary Younger Jannati. Iranian President Hassan Rohani looking at a of improving the quality of the pro- dominated parliament, which, on Guards Corps. He is a senior fellow book alongside Culture Minister Ali Jannati (R) during the ope- grammes produced by the state-run several occasions, tried to remove at the Foundation for Defense of ning of the 28th Tehran International Book Fair, last May. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcast- him from the cabinet. Democracies in Washington. Pushing back against Iran after the nuclear deal

Daniel Serwer these efforts, which are under the Houthis. He also proposes desig- likely counter that most of them it would deprive the Iran-backed control of the supreme leader and nating as terrorists more leaders of already are being implemented. Assad regime of any pretence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Iranian-backed Shia militias in Certainly there have been efforts sovereignty in a border area of the Washington Corps (IRGC), as protecting its that are committing atrocities, as to interdict weapons going to the country and would begin to offer an homeland from Sunni extremists well as expanding the training and Houthis and Assad, and missile opposition alternative. This would he biggest downside of and possible Israeli attack. The ad- arming of Iraqi security forces and shipments to have been amount to a significant push back the Iran nuclear deal is ministration’s logic seems to be that Kurdish peshmerga forces in the repeatedly attacked by the Israelis. against Iran’s continued support for what the Iranians will pushing back harder might have north and vetted Sunni forces in Training of the Kurds and Sunnis Assad. receive once economic weakened Iranian President Hassan western Iraq. in Iraq began some time ago, as has But for such a safe haven to be vi- sanctions are lifted: be- Rohani’s standing within the Islam- Finally, Satloff suggests that the training and equipping non-ex- able, five basic requirements must Ttween $50 billion and $100 billion ic Republic and made conclusion of United States work with Turkey to tremist opposition fighters in Syria be met: in unfrozen assets. The deal ne- a deal on the nuclear programme, create a true safe haven in northern — although the numbers trained Security gotiated between Iran and P5+1 is which is also ultimately under su- Syria where refugees can obtain hu- have been ridiculously low. More Governance worth supporting because it delays preme leader/IRGC control, impos- manitarian aid and vetted, non-ex- and better can and should be done. Rule of law any Iranian attempt to get nuclear sible. So what about now? There is tremist opposition fighters can be The only really new idea Satloff Economic activity weapons by at least 10-15 years (and still an argument to be made that trained and equipped to fight both offers — new in the sense that the Social services, including hu- possibly forever). However, it can- pushing back against Iran’s regional the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Iran- administration has not yet signed manitarian aid not be denied that some portion of troublemaking could stiffen Iranian backed Assad regime. on to it — is that of creating a safe Without these prerequisites, Syr- the unfrozen assets and increased hardliners and make implementa- All of these ideas have merit but haven in northern Syria. ians will not move to a safe haven revenue from future oil and gas tion of the deal more difficult. But the Obama administration would If this were to be implemented, and the effort will fail, like many sales will be used for activities that that argument is inconsistent with others before it. The conditions cre- destabilise the Middle East and po- the administration’s claim that the ated don’t have to be perfect but tentially areas beyond. historic deal concerns only the nu- they need to be better than what clear file and nothing else. people can find in Syria outside the We should not have The West is paying for this deal safe haven. to pay for it by by lifting sanctions but we should That might appear a low bar but tolerating Iranian not have to pay for it by tolerating really it isn’t: there are regime- Iranian subversion using money controlled areas in Syria that have subversion using derived from lifting sanctions. suffered relatively little, in which money derived from Robert Satloff, executive direc- even its opponents seek haven. lifting sanctions tor of the Washington Institute And the refugee camps in Turkey for Near East Policy, has offered a are not the worst on Earth. The notion that it will all go to im- reasonable list of options to push Creating a safe haven in Syria not proving the lot of ordinary Iranians back against Iranian subversion in only would offer relief to tens of is wishful thinking, at best. the region. None of these options thousands of suffering Syrian civil- The Obama administration hesi- violate the P5+1’s obligations in the ians, it also would be a major blow tated during the negotiation pro- nuclear agreement. to the Assad regime. And it would cess to push back hard against Ira- Satloff suggests, for example, send a clear signal to Iran that while nian support for Hezbollah in Syria that the United States and its allies the nuclear agreement may have and Lebanon, the Houthi rebellion could intensify efforts to interdict New actors, old slogans. An Iranian student writes an anti-US won it relief from sanctions, it does in Yemen and Tehran’s arming of Iranian weapons supplies to Hez- slogan in Persian which reads: “Death to America” at the gate of not grant Tehran a free hand to Shia militants in Bahrain. Iran views bollah, the Assad regime and the the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on September 2, 2015. meddle in the region.