The Iranian political system’s extraordinary nature still imposes competitiveness among its institutions. The mutual interactions between the supreme leadership and presidency are evidence of this conflictual nature. An example of this conflicting relationship emerged when conservatives suggested a constitutional amendment to replace the presidency with the prime ministry. In contrast, some reformist perceptions to reduce the powers of the supreme leader were revived. The reformist activist Mustafa Tajzadeh called to merge the supreme leadership and the presidency, where the leadership position would be assumed by election in a system where the leader would be vested with sole executive authority, thus addressing the contradiction and duplication within the Iranian political system, and ending one of the most significant rivalries among its most important institutions.
Nowadays, the proposals of re-establishing the relationship between the two institutions have implications close to the crises within the Iranian political system, and the attempts by the political parties to put the ball in the other party’s court and to absolve themselves of political responsibility for the current deteriorating internal and external conditions.
