Retired Brigadier General Hossein Alaei is not only the founding father of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy but also a prominent critic of the regime. He served throughout his entire career. In January 2012, he wrote an article in centrist Ettelaat newspaper comparing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s royal dictatorship. He ended the piece with a Quranic verse encouraging Khamenei to learn from the shah’s mistakes: “Thus, learn your lesson, you who have eyes.” Pro-regime mobs gathered in front of Alaei’s home in an attempt to intimidate him, but Alaei, who enjoys considerable support among IRGC veterans, was somewhat immune from intimidation tactics. In his latest public statements, Alaei took aim at the regime over the March 1 elections to the Parliament and Assembly of Experts.

• March 28: Asked how the regime can encourage the 60% of Iranians who didn’t vote March 1 to vote in the future, Alaei said to centrist Khabar Online:
  • “In order to bring the majority to the polls, they must feel that they will suffer significant losses if individuals they dislike are elected to office. Therefore, the regime must bring about fundamental changes in electoral laws so the people feel that elections will be free, fair, and competitive. This way, the people will feel that the destiny and future of the country are in their own hands and that they can elect the Cabinet and Assembly of Experts by voting and bring about progress … If they elect poorly, the people will have only themselves to blame for the country’s underdevelopment.”
  • Addressing the issue of invalid votes cast March 1, Alaei said: “In every election in any country, there are invalid votes, but it is the general perception that in the March elections, a bigger portion of the votes cast were invalid than in earlier elections. Until now, no information has been released about the invalid votes, but they can be put into three categories: blank votes, indicating the voters did not consider any of the candidates worthy of their vote; votes with the names of candidates disqualified by the Interior Ministry and the Guardian Council, which is an indication of protest against the widespread disqualifications; and votes bearing anything from the name of God, the Prophet, and infallible Shia imams to the names of political prisoners and other individuals popular among the voters. Other votes had the prices of basic products, which can be interpreted as a protest against the present circumstances.”
  • Turning to the economic hardships of Iranians, Alaei said: “Two-digit inflation and constantly rising prices of goods show the inefficacy of the adopted economic policies … The people constantly fear increases in the price of chicken, meat, and other foodstuffs, but the government, instead of increasing domestic production, is only pursuing the solution of increased imports from abroad. As long as the regime does not implement meaningful change in its foreign policy, economic policy, and domestic policy … the problems will remain, and the situation will get worse by the day.”