Tehran, March 14: Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani says the sound election of Ayatollah Kani as chairman of the country’s Assembly of Experts has nullified “Western media campaigns.”
“In these meetings, [the ninth session of the assembly] the major raised issue was the appointment of the Assembly of Experts’ chairman, which neutralized the false claims of the enemies,” IRNA quoted the top Judiciary official on Sunday.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts held its ninth official session in Tehran on Tuesday March 8, to appoint the next chairman of the 86-member body.
With 63 votes in favor, active member of the Experts Assembly and current president of Imam Sadegh University, Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani was elected as the next chairman of the body in the early hours of the ninth session.
Recalling the statements of the body’s former Chief, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who threw his weight behind Ayatollah Kani’s nomination and also declined to accept candidacy for the leadership post, Larijani said the Tuesday election at the Experts Assembly went to show that the world’s common fierce political competitions have no place in the body.
“I declare now that if Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani is ready to take up the post, I definitely would not stand for the post so that this holy institution won’t suffer harm,” Rafsanjani said in the opening of the meeting.
The election of the Assembly of Experts was a fair election which foiled the “West’s media hype and campaigns,” Larijani noted.
“The enemies wanted to usher in a feud at the Assembly of Experts and across the country, but they became disappointed and we are pleased of what has happened,” Ayatollah Larijani concluded.
Over 60 members of the assembly in a statement thanked Hashemi Rafsanjani for his services as chairman of the body over the past four years.
——–Agencies