Profile: Four major conservative hopefuls for Iran's Assembly of Experts

Iranians are considering to partake in one the country's most important elections on Friday, Feb. 26, to choose 88 members for the Assembly of Experts.

Iran's assembly is a deliberative body of Islamic theologians or Mujtahids, elected for eight years, and charged with electing and removing the Supreme Leader of Iran and supervising his activities.

Out of the 166 qualifified candidates, majority of them conservatives in their religious and political outlooks, four major clerics, namely Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, Mohammad Yazdi and Ahmad Khatami are considered as the leading conservative figures to win seats with fairly wide margin:

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati:

Jannati (born in February 1927 in Iran's Isfahan city) is a hardline Iranian politician and Shi'ite cleric.

He is the chairman of the Guardian Council, the highest legislative body of the country in charge of checking legislation approved by Majlis (parliament) with the Constitution and Sharia (basic Islamic legal system), and approving the candidates in various elections.

Jannati has been a member of the council since 1980 and has been its chair since 1985. He is an interim leader of Friday prayers of Tehran apinted by the Supreme Leader.

He is also father of Ali Jannati, the current Iranian moderate Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidence. Ahmad Jannati wields considerable influence in Iran's legislative institutions since he simultaneously holds seats in the Guardian Council, the Expediency Discernment Council of the Establshment , and the Assembly of Experts.

As Jannati is considered close to the Iranian Islamic conservatives, he is heavily criticized by the reformists for his active role in disqualifying some reformist candidates to run in various elections.

Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi:

Mesbah-Yazdi (born in January 1935 in Iran's Yazd city) is an Iranian conservative politician , Islamic scholar and Shi'ite cleric. Mesbah-Yazdi has been called "the most conservative" with the most "powerful" clerical influence in Iran's leading center of religious learning, the city of Qom.

Mesbah-Yazdi is the author of many books on fiqh (the theory or philosophy of Islamic law), divinity and general issues of Islam. His "Amuzesh-e Falsafeh" or (Teaching Philosophy) is used widely in the philosophy classes of Qom's religious school. Mesbah-Yazdi's "Amuzesh-e Falsafeh" has been published in English as "Philosophical Instructions," by Gary Legenhausen and Azim Sarvdalir in 1999.

He advocates Islamic philosophy which opposes western way of thought, the West-oriented reform movement and western culture.

He is the director of the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, founded in 1995, and a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts since 1990. He supported former Iranian hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his presidential bid in 2005.

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi:

Yazdi (born in July 1931 in Isfahan) is also an Iranian Shi'ite cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. Yazdi is an incumbent chairman-member of the Assembly of Experts and a member of Guardian Council.

In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts, defeating Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former moderate president. In the past years, he served as the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran.

It is believed here that Yazdi was apparently supported as the chairman of the Assembly of Experts by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami:

Khatami (born in May 1960 in Iran's Semnan city) is also another senior Iranian Shi'ite cleric as well as a member of the Assembly of Experts.In December 2005, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed him as one of Tehran's interim Friday prayer leaders.

He studied at seminaries in Qom and Semnan. In Ahmadinjad's bid for presidency, Khatami supported him. He was also against the removal of the "slogan of Death to America" from Iran's political scene.

Khatami has been less active in Iran's politics and devoted his career to promoting Islamic culture. He was also a critic of cultural issues rooted in antiquity or inspired by the alien societies.

In his recent remarks, Khatami bitterly criticized some foreign-based Iranian opposition groups who encouraged the Iranians to abstain from voting to Ahmad Jannati, Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi and Mohammad Yazdi.

Last week, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of "enemy plots to influence" the upcoming elections.

Khamenei said the United States plans to challenge the Guardian Council's decisions of vetting the candidates and portray the elections as illegal.

"Since the first day of the (Islamic) revolution, Americans have opposed certain basic organs, including the Guardian Council, but they could not do away with it. Now they want to call into question its decisions," he was quoted as saying by Press TV. Endit