IRAN: The Leftists: A Waiting Game

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Power struggle in a wayward revolution

It was another bad week for Iran's floundering President Abolhassan Banisadr. Not only did his candidates make a dismal showing in the second round of parliamentary elections; he also lost a battle in his power struggle with the clergy-dominated Islamic Republic Party. As the President and the mullahs jockeyed for control of Iran's wayward revolution, the faction-ridden and economically strapped regime of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini slipped ever closer to chaos.

Led by Ayatullah Seyyed Mohammed Beheshti, the ranking member of the ruling Revolutionary Council, Banisadr's clerical rivals won at least 130 of 270 parliamentary seats in the May 9 voting, the results of which were announced only last week. Banisadr's supporters gained a mere 41 seats, while an assortment of independent mullahs, liberal democrats and nationalists won 71. Undecided are 28 seats, which mostly belong to two provinces—Kurdistan and Khuzistan—torn by civil war and political unrest.

Banisadr tried to shore up his own position by a constitutional maneuver aimed at outflanking the mullahs. He presented Khomeini with an emergency program to save the Islamic revolution from "conspiracies." Specifically, he requested authority to appoint a Prime Minister. Khomeini, who has become increasingly irritated at Banisadr's appeals for help, replied curtly, "Consent granted."

But Beheshti and his clerical comrades on the Revolutionary Council correctly read Khomeini's mood and blocked the President's attempts to appoint a Prime Minister. Declared Beheshti haughtily: "The difficulty is that once a Prime Minister is approved by the Imam, then the Majlis [National Assembly] won't be able to vote freely on his appointment." Adding to his humiliation, Banisadr last week lost a lesser battle against Ayatullah Sadegh Khalkhali, an Islamic judge who had sentenced more than 100 Kurdish rebels and officials of the Pahlavi regime to death. When Banisadr denied Khalkhali's right to exercise judicial functions as chief narcotics investigator, the cleric openly defied him, forcing the President to back down. Earlier, the headstrong judge had already defied presidential orders by leading a group of Islamic zealots on a rampage that demolished the Shah's father's marble mausoleum.

Banisadr's problems are compounded by economic woes. Unemployment is currently about 30%, and industrial production is only at 30% of capacity. Daily oil output has sunk to about 2 million bbl., far below the 6 million bbl. produced under the Shah. Production threatened to fall even lower when a major pipeline in Kermanshah province was blown up, presumably by antigovernment Iranian Arabs.

As Iran's political and economic situation continues to deteriorate, many Western observers fear that leftists may ultimately inherit the revolution and seize control of the government. That may happen, but for the time being, two major leftist groups act as a buffer between the clerical regime and Marxist radicals. The Tudeh (Communist) Party apes the current Moscow line, which proclaims unqualified support for the Ayatullah. The Islamic People's Mujahidin, which espouses broad anti-imperialist and socialist principles, also recognizes Khomeini.