Khamenei laments 'loss' of hard-line Assembly of Experts members
At the last meeting of Iran’s outgoing Assembly of Experts, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed regret for the departure of two hard-liners and defended the Guardian Council's disqualification of several Reformist candidates.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met for the last time with the outgoing members of the Assembly of Experts before the winners of the Feb. 26 elections take office.
Missing from the next meeting will be two of the country’s most hard-line clerics, chairman Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi. In his address to the assembly, Khamenei called their departure "a loss" and stressed that their losing the election does not “harm their reputation in any way.”
