The Islamic Republican Party (IRP; Persian: حزب جمهوری اسلامی, romanized: Ḥezb-e Jomhūrī-e Eslāmī, also translated Islamic Republic Party) was formed in 1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini in their goal to establish theocracy in Iran. It was disbanded in 1987 due to internal conflicts.
The party has been said to be distinguished by "its strong clerical component, its loyalty to Khomeini, its strong animosity to the liberal political movements, and its tendency to support the revolutionary organizations," such as the komiteh. Policies it supported included the state takeover of large capital enterprises, the establishment of an Islamic cultural and university system, and programs to assist the poor.[14]
These revolutionary ayatollahs originally used the party to form a monopoly over the post-revolutionary theocratic Iranian state. In its struggle with civilian opponents the party made use of its ties to the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.
[edit]Ali Khamenei at the party's office in Qom, 1983
In the late 1980s, factionalism in the IRP intensified, the major issues being the Iran-Iraq War, whether to open up to foreign countries or remain isolated, and economic policies. Because all rival parties had been banned, the party "did almost nothing and had little incentive to."[15]
According to Ahmad Mneisi,
"While unanimous on the idea of a theological state and united under the umbrella of one party, the Islamic Republican Party (IRP), [the religious right] differed on a number of issues, such as the extent to which religion is to take hold of political life (the Velayat-e Faqih debate).[16]
Daniel Brumberg argued that it was in response to the dispute between president Ali Khamenei and popular prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, that the IRP was dissolved - the Islamic Republican Party served "as a stronghold of radical activism," supporting Mousavi.[17] However, another report states that it was dissolved in May 1987 due to internal conflicts.[1][18] And the party was disbanded upon joint proposal of Rafsanjani and then party leader Khameini on 2 May 1987 when their proposal was endorsed by Ayatollah Khomeini.[13]
^ abcdJohn H. Lorentz (2010). "Islamic Republican Party (IRP)". The A to Z of Iran. The A to Z Guide Series. Vol. 209. Scarecrow Press. pp. 143–144. ISBN978-1461731917.
^Rubin, Barry M.; Rubin, Judith Colp (2008), "The Iranian Revolution and The War in Afghanistan", Chronologies of Modern Terrorism, M.E. Sharpe, p. 246, ISBN9780765622068, In Tehran, Iran, a bomb set by the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a leftist group with a philosophy combining Marxism and Islam, explodes at the headquarters of the ruling Islamic Republican Party, killing 73 people, including the party's founder, chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, four cabinet ministers and 23 parliament members.
^New Iran bursting with mass politics, Detroit Free Press, 20 June 1979, p. 28
^M Nasif Sharani (2013). Esposito, John L.; Shahin, Emad El-Din (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 196. ISBN9780195395891.
^ abcAntoine, Olivier; Sfeir, Roy (2007), The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, Columbia University Press, p. 150
^Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin (2014). A Critical Introduction to Khomeini. Cambridge University Press. p. 112. ISBN978-1-107-72906-3.
^Houchang E. Chehabi (1990). Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris. p. 283. ISBN1850431981.
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