Volume 3 ,Issue 1 ,September 2026 ,Pages 376-389
Ashna Ali Mohammed Amin ; Prof. Dr. Yasin Khalid Hassan
Following the demise of Ayatollah Khomeini (1989) and the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, the Islamic Republic of Iran faced a severe crisis in redrawing the power structure and managing internal political conflicts. The central problem of this study focuses on identifying the causes of the radical internal shifts during 1992–1993, wherein the systematic exclusion of the Islamic Left in the fourth parliamentary (Majlis) elections endangered political equilibrium. Contrary to expectations, this exclusion led to the outbreak of new political rifts within the ruling establishment.
The study adopts a historical-political analytical methodology by dividing the subject into three primary axes: evaluating the role of legal mechanisms and tactical alliances (the Guardian Council, Khamenei, and Rafsanjani) in purging the Left; tracking structural transformations within the executive and legislative branches; and analyzing the perception of intellectual and economic changes in creating power polarization.
The political purge of 1992–1993 disrupted Iran's internal institutional balance and weakened the presidency. Concurrently, the forced marginalization of the Left provided them with a new intellectual and cognitive framework, prompting their transition from state socialism toward a reformist worldview, democracy, and civil society.