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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
By the time Khomeini issued his judicial decree, the armed
opposition had been suppressed. Although isolated acts of terrorism
continued to take place after December 1982, the political elite no
longer perceived such incidents as threatening to the regime. Both
religious and lay leaders remained generally intolerant of dissent,
but a gradual decline was noted in government abuses of civil
liberties in line with the provisions of the eight-point decree. As
preoccupation with internal security abated, the leaders began to
establish consensus on the procedures that they believed were
necessary to ensure the continuity of the new political
institutions. Accordingly, elections were held for the Assembly of
Experts, which chose a successor to Khomeini, and regulations were
promulgated for the smooth functioning of the ministerial
bureaucracies. The politicians also were determined to restore
relative normalcy to society, albeit within prescribed Islamic
bounds. Thus, they permitted the universities, which had been
closed in 1980, to reopen, and they tried to control the excesses
of the hezbollahis.
The refocusing of political energies on consolidating the
regime also brought into the open the debate among members of the
political elite over government policies. Two main issues dominated
this debate: the role of the revolutionary organizations that
operated fairly autonomously of the central government; and
government intervention in the economy. The government of Prime
Minister Mir-Hosain Musavi, which was approved by the Majlis in
October 1981 and won a second parliamentary mandate in October
1985, tried to restrain the revolutionary organizations and
advocated broad regulatory economic control. The Majlis served as
the principal arena in which these issues were debated. Opposition
from the Majlis blocked some laws outright and forced the
government to accept compromises that diluted the effects of other
policies.
Data as of December 1987
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