One day after Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani warned against the return of “the seditious elements of 2009”, the Jomhouri Eslami daily expressed its disappointment at the statement by Iran’s top judicial official.

On Wednesday, Ayatollah Larijani said: “Recently the seditious elements of 2009 and the factions of the reformists who want secularization of the country and politics… have once again been rising like cobras.”

Jomhouri Eslami responded today, saying: “For two reasons, the head of the judiciary needs to choose his words more carefully and refrain from insults: primarily because he is a member of the clergy and secondly because such language is not becoming of the supreme head of the judiciary.”

The “2009 sedition” is the term coined by the Supreme Leader of Iran to label the election protesters who challenged the legitimacy of the 2009 vote count. The reformist candidates challenged the election outcome and in 2011 they were finally put under house arrest, where they still remain.

The election of Hassan Rohani, the most moderate candidate in the 2013 presidential election, has given the reformists hope that they can return to the political scene; they were severely sidelined after the 2009 protests.

Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani’s statements appear to express concern about the return of reformists to government.
Radio Zamaneh