Iranians Contest President Rouhani’s New Military Budget
Former President Rafsanjani (left) and current President Rouhani (right) at the Assembly of Experts. Source: Tasmin News
Former President and current chair of Iran’s Expediency Council, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is continuing to draw criticism from prominent Iranian hardliners after he suggested reallocating public military funding towards the education and science sectors in early August.
The source of the controversy comes from his remarks at a Ministry of Education summit meeting on August 10. Drawing parallels to development-oriented budgetary policies of post-war Germany and Japan, Rafsanjani stated, “Today… Germany and Japan have the strongest economies in the world… With no military spending, these countries could use that extra money on science and production… The door has been opened to a similar process in Iran.” Conservative media outlets and prominent hardliners condemned this statement, even labeling it an “invitation card to Daesh.”
Rafsanjani’s statement comes after a year of contention regarding Iranian public military funding. Debates began in January when current President Hassan Rouhani released his fiscal year budget to the Iranian parliament, the Majlis, just a day after international economic sanctions were lifted. His budget plan underwent an unusually lengthy period of scrutiny within the Majlis. When official reports were finally released to the public in March, conservative media outlets such as Kayhan protested Rouhani’s radical reduction of the military budget.
Contrary to these hardliner outcries, al-Monitor reported that Rouhani appears to have slightly increased overall military spending. However, he has notably reallocated funding from one branch in Iran’s multi-pronged defense force to another: Rouhani reduced funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by a significant 16 percent and raised the budget for the traditionally underfunded Iranian army, the Artesh, by an unprecedented 15 percent. This reallocation appears to be at the heart of the conservative media’s outcry and reflects a long-term, politicized rivalry between the army and the IRGC.
It is widely recognized that the Iranian army is in very poor condition. Though it is the largest of Iran’s military branches, the Artesh has traditionally faced recruitment challenges, insufficient public funding, poor structural organization, extensive civilian control, and little symbolic support from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In contrast, the elite IRGC shares close ties with the Supreme Leader and receives generous funding from the state as well as non-governmental illegal and legal sources.
Rouhani’s precise rationale for reallocating of Iran’s military budget remains unclear. The President may feel pressure to modernize Iran’s largest military branch as a defense against its heavily militarized and unfriendly neighbors in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt. On the other hand, reformist Rouhani may be aiming to rejuvenate the Artesh in order to incrementally reduce the power of the IRGC, often seen as a puppet of the conservative Ayatollah Khamenei and his conservative base.
While long-term implications of Rouhani’s policies remain uncertain, the immediate conservative response, if nothing else, reflects Iran’s deep internal political divisions. On the one hand, Former President Rafsanjani’s recent statement offers a strongly reformist approach to military spending. On the other, conservative media outlets, often funded by the Supreme Leader, vie for maintaining the status quo. While Iran’s regional and international role may be rapidly evolving, hardliners and reformists within Iran remain polarized.