Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran's Expediency Council approved that armed forces should not be involved in national elections.
"Members of armed forces, including the army, the IRGC, the law enforcement, the Basij, and security and intelligence systems, are not allowed to participate in political fronts or support any certain nominee in elections," according to the approval, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on Feb. 14.
The Expediency Council is an administrative assembly appointed by the Supreme Leader. It was originally set up to resolve differences or conflicts between the parliament and the Guardian Council.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in Sept. 2013 that being involved in the political arena is not necessary for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but it should be acquainted with the country's politics.
Former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini had banned the IRGC from politics, but during past decade it became massively involved in Iran's political and financial issues. The Guards conservative leadership opposed many policies of Iran's reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, who served from 1997 to 2005 and helped scuttle his boldest initiatives.