Combatant Clergy Association

For the Iranian reformist party, see Association of Combatant Clerics.

The Combatant Clergy Association (Persian: جامعه روحانیت مبارز, romanized: Jâme'e-ye Ruhâniat-e Mobârez) is a politically active group in Iran, but not a political party in the traditional sense.

Combatant Clergy Association جامعه روحانیت مبارز
General Secretary	Mostafa Pourmohammadi
Spokesperson	Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghaddam
Founded	6 November 1977; 47 years ago (1977-11-06)[1]
Headquarters	Tehran, Iran
Ideology	Islamic theocracy[2][3] Islamic nationalism[4] Iranian nationalism[5] Khomeinism[6] Governance of the Jurist Anti-Western sentiment Anti-Zionism[7] Anti-imperialism[2]
Political position	Centre-right to right-wing[8]
Religion	Shia Islam
Parliament	13 / 290
Assembly of Experts	6 / 88
Expediency Discernment Council	2 / 48
Website
Official website
Politics of Iran Political parties Elections

It has never been registered as a political party; however, it acts as a fragmented caucus and has actively operated in the electoral arena, competing for votes. Thus, it is considered an elite party and can be classified as a political party according to the minimalist definition by Angelo Panebianco. The traditional conservative clerical association was the majority party in the fourth and fifth parliaments after the Islamic revolution.^[4]

The organization has great influence over non-elective institutions such as the judicial system, the Guardian Council and Revolutionary Guard Corps.^[8]

History

After the 15 Khordad demonstration failed in Iran, it was felt that a coherence organization was needed.^[9] The association was founded in 1977 by a group of clerics with intentions to use Islamic culture and traditions to overthrow the Shah. Although the exact founding members of the group are unsure, some of them were said to be Ali Khamenei, Morteza Motahhari, Mohammad Beheshti, Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Fazlollah Mahallati and Mohammad Mofatteh,^[10] and its current members include founding member Ali Khamenei.^[7]

The Combatant Clergy Association was one of the few republican groups active before the Iran–Iraq War. A "free political atmosphere" was not provided in Iran due to the special conditions of wartime, and the Combatant Clergy Association was the only active political organisation after the dissolution of the Islamic Republican Party (All IRP clerics were members of CCA but not all CCA founders were members of IRP).^[4] By the emergence of factional differences in government of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the organization was divided, and Association of Combatant Clerics was formed.^[11]

Recent years

CCA is suffering from unresolved contention between its elites. Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran since 2013, is a member of the faction although he has been inactive and not participated their regular sessions since the disputed 2009 presidential elections, a situation that applies to Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as well.^[4][12] The association however backed Rafsanjani and Rouhani in 2016 Assembly of Experts election and included both on its list,^[13] despite backing Rouhani's rival, Ebrahim Raisi, for president in 2017.^[14]

Goals and activities

The association brought together anti-Shah clerics and bazaaris.^[15] It also aimed to preserve the revolution and its achievements. Supporting the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist and state organization are some of the group's goals. The association does not recognize itself as a political party and hence does not have any written strategy or policy. The association mostly announces its political viewpoints around election time.^[10]

Members of the association have had important positions in the different governments of Iran. By 2004, four out of eight presidents of the executive branch of the government had been selected from this association. Also, the president of the judicial branch of the government was one of the members of the association, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, for two five-year periods, from 1989 to 1999.^[10]

Foreign policy

The association believes in making diplomatic relationships with all world countries except the United States and Israel, and their criteria in this regard is avoiding both being dominated by other countries and domination over others. However, they believe that there can be relationships with France and the United Kingdom under defined conditions. The association believes that there are intrinsic differences between the value system of Iran and western societies.^[16]

Funding

The fourth chapter of the Combatant Clergy Association's statute deals with the financial issues of the association.^[16]

Election results

Presidential elections

President of Iran

Election year	Candidate	First round			Second round			Result
		Votes	%	Rank	Votes	%	Rank
1981	Ali Khamenei	16,007,072	95.01%	1st	—			Won
1985		12,203,870	87.9%	1st	—			Won
1989	Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani	15,537,394	94.5%	1st	—			Won
1993		10,449,933	64.0%	1st	—			Won
1997	Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri	7,242,859	24.91%	2nd	—			Lost
2001	Did not participate
2005	Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani	6,179,653	22.00%	2nd	10,046,701	36.76	2nd	Lost
2009	Tactical voting to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	24,592,793	63.14%	1st	—			Won
2013	Suppurting to Ali Akbar Velayati	2,268,753	6.18%	5th	—			Lost
2017	Ebrahim Raisi	15,835,794	39.43%	2nd	—			Lost
2021	Ebrahim Raisi	18,021,945	72.35%	1nd	—			Won
2024	Mostafa Pourmohammadi	206,397	0.88%	4th	—			Lost

Parliament

Election	Exclusive seats	+/-	%	Rank	Alliance
1988	90 / 270		33.33%	2nd	Faction right
1992	134 / 270	44	49.62%	1st	Faction right
1996	110 / 270	24	40.74%	1st	FFLIL
2000	54 / 290	56	18.62%	2nd	FFLIL
2004	196 / 290	142	67.58%	1st	ABII
2008	137 / 290	59	47.24%	1st	UFP
2012	133 / 290	4	45.86%	1st	UFP
2016	84 / 290	49	28.96%	2nd	PGC
2020	177 / 290	93	61.03%	1st	CCIRF
2024	13 / 290	164	4.48%	4th	UCIRF

Assembly of Experts

Election	Seats won	+/−	Alliance	Ref
1982	65 / 86 (76%)		Faction right
1990	73 / 86 (85%)	8	Faction right
1998	69 / 86 (80%)	4	Faction right	[17]
2006	59 / 86 (69%)	10	Principlists	[18]
2016	66 / 88 (75%)	7	Principlists	[19]
2024	58 / 88 (66%)	8	Principlists

List of General Secretaries

#	Name	Tenure	Ref
1	Fazlollah Mahallati	1977–31 October 1981	[20]
2	Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani	1 November 1981 – 21 October 2014	[20]
—	Mohammed Emami-Kashani (interim)	1996	[20]
3	Ali Movahedi-Kermani	2 December 2014 – 30 May 2018	[20]
4	Mostafa Pourmohammadi	30 May 2018–present	[20]