Islamic Republican Party

{{Infobox political party

| colorcode = {{party color|Islamic Republican Party}}

| name = Islamic Republican Party

| native_name = حزب جمهوری اسلامی

| logo = Logo of the Islamic Republican Party.png

| founders = Ali Khamenei
Mohammad Beheshti{{cite journal |last=Asayesh |first=Hossein |author2=Adlina Ab. Halim |author3=Jayum A. Jawan |author4=Seyedeh Nosrat Shojaei |title=Political Party in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Review |journal=Journal of Politics and Law |date=March 2011 |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.5539/jpl.v4n1p221 |url=http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jpl/article/view/9606/6898 |access-date=29 July 2013|doi-access=free }}

{{Collapsible list

| title = {{nobold|...{{nbsp}}and others}}

| Mohammad Javad Bahonar

| Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

| Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili

}}

| foundation = {{start date|1979|2|17|df=y}}{{cite book |author=John H. Lorentz|chapter=Islamic Republican Party (IRP)|title=The A to Z of Iran |volume=209|series=The A to Z Guide Series|publisher=Scarecrow Press|pages=143–144|date=2010|isbn=978-1461731917}}

| dissolution = {{end date|1987|6|1|df=y}}

| headquarters = Tehran, Iran{{citation|first1=Barry M.|last1=Rubin|first2=Judith Colp|last2=Rubin|entry=The Iranian Revolution and The War in Afghanistan|title=Chronologies of Modern Terrorism|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|date=2008|isbn=9780765622068|page=246|quote=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.}}

| newspaper = Jomhouri-e Eslami{{cite book|author=Ervand Abrahamian|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|title=Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin|publisher=I.B.Tauris|pages=42–45|date=1989|isbn=9781850430773}}

| wing1_title = {{nowrap|Paramilitary wing}}

| wing1 = Revolutionary Guards{{cite book|author=Said Amir Arjomand|title=The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran|url=https://archive.org/details/turbanforcrownis00arjo|url-access=limited|series=Studies in Middle Eastern history|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/turbanforcrownis00arjo/page/n148 136]|date=1988|isbn=9780195042580}}

| wing2_title = Trade union

| wing2 = Workers' House

| ideology = Khomeinism{{cite book|author1=M Nasif Sharani|editor1-last=Esposito|editor1-first=John L.|editor2-last=Shahin|editor2-first=Emad El-Din|title=The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195395891|page=196}}

Islamism{{citation|title=Ways to survive, battles to win: Iranian women exiles in the Netherlands and United States|first=Halleh|last=Ghorashi|publisher=Nova Publishers|year=2002|isbn=978-1-59033-552-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/waystosurvivebat0000ghor/page/63 63]|url=https://archive.org/details/waystosurvivebat0000ghor/page/63}}
TheocracyAbrahamian, Khomeinism, 1993: pp. 33–36.
Populism{{cite book|author=Ervand Abrahamian|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|title=Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin|publisher=I.B.Tauris|pages=42–45|date=1989|isbn=9781850430773}}
Political Islam
Clericalism
Anti-imperialism
Anti-Marxism

{{Collapsible list

| title = Factions:

| Planned economy{{Citation|first1=Olivier|first2=Roy|last1=Antoine|last2=Sfeir|title=The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007|page=150}}

| Free market economy

| Radicalism

| Pragmatism

}}

| slogan = "One nation, one religion, one order, one leader"

| membership = 2.5 million (1979 {{estimation}}){{citation|title=New Iran bursting with mass politics|publisher=Detroit Free Press|page=28|date=20 June 1979}}

| religion = Shia Islam

| position = Big tent

| affiliation1_title = Electoral alliance

| affiliation1 = Islamic Coalition (1979){{cite book|first=Arshin|last=Adib-Moghaddam|title=A Critical Introduction to Khomeini|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-72906-3|page=112}}
Grand Coalition (1980){{cite book |author=Houchang E. Chehabi|title=Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini|publisher=I.B.Tauris|pages=283|date=1990|isbn=1850431981}}

| country = Iran

}}

The Islamic Republican Party (IRP; {{langx|fa|حزب جمهوری اسلامی|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.

Founders and characteristics

The party was formed just two weeks following the revolution upon the request of Ayatollah Khomeini. Five cofounders of the party were Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Mohammad Beheshti, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ali Khamenei, and Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili. Early members of the central committee of the party, in addition to founding members, were Hassan Ayat, Asadollah Badamchiyan, Abdullah Jasbi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Habibollah Askar Oladi, Sayyed Mahmoud Kashani, Mahdi Araghi, and Ali Derakhshan. The party had three general secretaries: Beheshti, Bahonar and Khamenei.

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.Bakhash, Reign of the Ayatollahs, (1984), p. 67 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.

= Secretaries-general =

Name !Tenure !Ref
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:100%; line-height:16px;"
\|Mohammad Beheshti	1979–1981
\|Mohammad Javad Bahonar	1981
\|Ali Khamenei	1981–1987

Causes of its dissolution

File:President Ali Khamenei meet Non-Iranian Hawza students - Office of the Islamic Republican Party in Qom.jpg, 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."Keddie, Nikkie, Modern Iran, 2003, pp. 259-60 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).Mneisi, Ahmad. [https://web.archive.org/web/20041214090447/http://www.ahram.org.eg/acpss/eng/ahram/2004/7/5/EGYP1.HTM 2004. The Power shift within Iran's right wing] Ahram, 5 July 2004

Daniel Brumberg argued that the IRP was dissolved to weaken popular Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, as the party had become a stronghold of radical activism backing him in his dispute with President Ali Khamenei.Brumberg, Daniel, Reinventing Khomeini : The Struggle for Reform in Iran, University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 134 Another report states that it was dissolved in May 1987 due to internal conflicts,{{cite web|last=Nikou|first=Semira N.|title=Timeline of Iran's Political Events|url=http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-political-events|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028103238/http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-political-events|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 October 2010|work=United States Institute of Peace|access-date=27 July 2013}} and the party was disbanded upon joint proposal of Rafsanjani and Khamenei on 2 May 1987 when their proposal was endorsed by Khomeini.{{cite journal|last=Behrooz|first=Maziar|title=Factionalism in Iran under Khomeini|journal=Middle Eastern Studies|date=October 1994|volume=27|issue=4|pages=597–614|jstor=4283464|doi=10.1080/00263209108700879}}

1983 congress

The party held its first congress in May 1983 and the members elected the 30-members central council as follows:{{cite thesis |last=Mohammadighalehtaki|first=Ariabarzan|date=2012|title=Organisational Change in Political Parties in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. With Special Reference to the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) and the Islamic Iran Participation Front Party (Mosharekat)|page= |type=Ph.D. thesis|publisher=Durham University|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3507/|pages=159–161}}

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"

! #

! Member (faction)

! Votes

| Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (R)

| 647

| Ali Khamenei (R)

| 646

| Mohammad Mehdi Rabbani Amlashi (R)

| 637

| Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani (R)

| 634

| Ali Akbar Velayati (R)

| 624

| Abbas Vaez Tabasi (R)

| 623

| Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri (R)

| 612

| Ali Akbar Parvaresh (R)

| 589

| Abbas Sheibani (R)

| 579

| Mohamma Reza Beheshti (L)

| 578

| Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi (R)

| 574

| Masih Mohajeri (L)

| 570

| Hassan Ghafourifard (R)

| 550

| Mir-Hossein Mousavi (L)

| 554

| Habibollah Asgaroladi (R)

| 542

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 85%;"

! #

! Member (faction)

! Votes

| Mohsen Doagou Feizabaadi (R)

| 500

| Abolghasem Sarhaddizadeh (L)

| 499

| Gholamhossein Sharifkhani

| 460

| Mohammad Reza Bahonar (R)

| 453

| Asadollah Lajevardi (R)

| 430

| Asadollah Badamchian (R)

| 428

| Javad Mansouri (L)

| 414

| Reza Zavare'i (R)

| 410

| Abdollah Jassbi (R)

| 375

| Morteza Nabavi (R)

| 372

| Saeed Amani (R)

| 310

| Mohieddin Fazel Harandi (R)

| 276

| Mostafa Mir-Salim (R)

| 260

| Mohammad-Hossein Asgharnia

| 231

| Javad Eje'i (L)

| 223

Allied organizations

The following organizations formed an alliance with the party:{{cite thesis |last=Mohammadighalehtaki|first=Ariabarzan|date=2012|title=Organisational Change in Political Parties in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. With Special Reference to the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) and the Islamic Iran Participation Front Party (Mosharekat)|type=Ph.D. thesis|publisher=Durham University|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3507/|page=165}}