The first institution which had been formed before the victory of the Islamic Revolution by the order of Imam Khomeini and continued its activities after the fall of the Pahlavi regime is the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
It is not clear when the preparations for the formation of this Council were made; however, it is said that shortly after Imam Khomeini arrived in Paris in September 1978, the issue of managing the Islamic Movement and organizing popular movements in the country as well as managing the affairs after the fall of the Pahlavi regime, were discussed, and Imam Khomeini commissioned figures such as Ayatollah Mortaza Motahhari, Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hoseyni-Beheshti and Mahdi Bazargan to conduct the preliminary studies regarding the establishment of the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
They each offered their views on the members of the Council, its functions and its place. Among them, Ayatollah Motahhari was commissioned by Imam Khomeini to identify the possible members of the Council. Meanwhile, some members of the first core of the Council of the Islamic Revolution used to hold regular meetings to discuss the process of popular struggles in Tehran. In addition, in December 1978, Imam Khomeini had asked some of his trusted people to nominate at least ten religious and trustworthy people to join the Council of the Islamic Revolution. Furthermore, they should believe in the Islamic doctrines, be competent to run the ministry (i.e., they must be learned and good managers), they should be famed for their patriotism and should be reputable, they should not have been members of corrupt governments or the two houses of parliament, disreputable for their corruption and they should not be known as capitalists.
After studying and consulting with a large number of Muslim revolutionaries, Ayatollah Motahhari presented his proposed list to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, and hence Imam Khomeini appointed Mr. Motahhari, Mr. Beheshti, Mr. Sayyed Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili, Mr. Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and Mr. Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani as the members of the primary core of the Council of the Islamic Revolution. Then, gradually, with the suggestion of the members and the consent of Imam Khomeini, other people such as Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani, Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Taleqani and Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei from among the clerics as well as Mr. Mahdi Bazargan, Dr. Yadollah Sahabi, Mr. Ezzatollah Sahabi, Dr. Ahmad Sadr, Haj Sayyed Javadi, Mostafa Katiraei, Dr. Abbas Sheybani, Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, Sadeq Qotbzadeh, Sayyed Abolhasan Banisadr and Dr. Hasan Habibi have joined this group and the Council began holding meetings in November 1978. Yazdi, Qotbzadeh, Banisadr and Habibi, who were in Paris, also attended the meetings of the Council after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. However, the names of the members of the Council of the Islamic Revolution were never officially announced.
The news of the formation of the Council of the Islamic Revolution was first announced on January 12, 1979, through a message sent by Imam Khomeini to the Iranian nation. In this message, Imam Khomeini stated that:
“In accordance to the religious rights and on the basis of the confidence vote of the absolute majority of the Iranian people – to me – in line with the materialization of the Islamic goals of the nation, a council called the Council of the Islamic Revolution, which consists of competent, Muslim, committed, trustable people is temporarily set up and will start its work.”
According to the message, the Council was duty-bound to perform specific tasks, including the review of the conditions for the establishment of the transitional government and preparing its preliminary grounds. Imam Khomeini insisted that the current government (Bakhtiar administration) is never accepted by the people and cooperation with this usurping government in any form and any kind is religiously unlawful and is an offence legally. Also, he added that the struggles of the Iranian nation should be continued until the establishment of the Islamic Republic which guarantees the freedom of the nation, independence of the country and social justice and it is only with the establishment of the just Islamic government, supported by the people, and the active participation of the nation that the destruction brought by the Shah’s regime can be removed.
In this message, for the first time, the future organization and plans of the Islamic government were specified. One day after the announcement of the formation of the Council, the news of the establishment of the Royal Council, as well as the name of its members, were announced, and three days later, on January 16, 1979, Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi left Iran forever, and 26 days later, the Islamic Revolution succeeded.
During its activity, the Council of the Islamic Revolution played the role of the Majles among the pillars of the government. The first and most important action of the Council was suggesting Mr. Bazargan for taking the office of the Prime Minister which was approved and accepted by Imam Khomeini.
With the formation of the interim government, a number of the members of the Council who had entered the cabinet were removed from the Council. Until November 5, 1979, when the interim government resigned, the Council of the Islamic Revolution did not interfere in the executive affairs of the country, but after that, by the order of Imam Khomeini, this Council became responsible for carrying out the executive duties of the government. Thereafter, the members of the interim government participated in the meetings of the Council and vice versa so that they together manage the affairs of the country. Earlier, in June 1979, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister of the interim government, several clerics of the Council of the Islamic Revolution entered the government to become more familiar with executive affairs and to gradually become the deputy ministers. Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani became the State Minister and Hashemi Rafsanjani became the Deputy Minister of Interior. Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr. Bahonar took a position in the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Education respectively. Ayatollah Beheshti took over the Ministry of Justice. During the same period, figures such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmad Jalali and Dr. Habibollah Peyman joined the Council of the Islamic Revolution.
Holding a referendum on the constitution of the Islamic Republic, presidential elections and the elections of the Islamic Consultative Assembly were among the important tasks of this Council in the second half of 1979. The Council was then divided into four commissions: Security, Diplomacy and Politics, Economic Affairs, and Executive Affairs, which, after approving the plans and bills, sought their enforcement by the government.
After the formation of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on May 28, 1980, and the appointment of the members of the Guardian Council of the Constitution and the formalization of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on July 20, 1980, the Council of the Islamic Revolution was dissolved after eighteen months of pursuing various tasks. During this period, the Council passed more than one thousand resolutions including the Banking Nationalization Act, Nationalization of Insurance companies and Industries, the Land Reform Law, the Anti-Narcotics Law and the Law on the Establishment of the Ministry of Oil. All the resolutions of the Council were reviewed and revised in a commission which was constituted of the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and some of them were amended or revoked. The chairs of the Council of the Islamic Revolution since its establishment were Ayatollah Motahhari, Ayatollah Taleqani, Ayatollah Beheshti and Mr. Banisadr.
Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution
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