Persian → English transcript

They ask why the President's duties and powers are not taken into account?

He acts too independently, and no action is taken. Look…

I don't want to get into this in detail right now. In our Constitution,

the powers of the three branches are defined: the government, the parliament,

and the judiciary. And right now, no one can say," Go and change the

Constitution." The reality of the government in our country is that its powers are

very extensive.

Those who say the government has no authority either don't know what's

going on at all— meaning they are completely out of touch— or they are lying.

And it makes no difference which government it is,

whether it's my friend's government or my rival's government,

it makes no difference at all.

The authority of any government under the law for economic, security, social,

and political decisions is very high.

Let me tell you this and I'm done, because… As for the questions,

I think we answered some that were similar. But look… In many places,

citizens ask me,"

Isn't there such- and- such a law?

Then why doesn't the government implement it?" Go and pass that law so

the government implements it. I want to make a point here, and then I'm done.

The reality of the country, people, is this: governments, based on their authority

and the law… have a very free hand to do something or not to do it.

Meaning, even if you have a law in a certain area

and the government is obligated to implement it, if that government, for any reason,

lacks the will, in practice, it can choose not to do it. Let me give you an example,

a non- political one. We had a government in this country…

that during the few years it was in office,

built four million homes and handed them over to the people.

We also had a government that was in power for eight years, the next one,

which couldn't even deliver 4,000 homes.

Well, the law was the same, the president's position was the same,

the Ministry of Housing was the same.

What happens that one government... builds millions

of houses and gives them to the people, while another government can't

even build 100,000, let alone a million? Because one government comes and says,"

I consider it my duty to serve the people, build houses,

and give them to them cheaply," while another government says,"

What does it have to do with me? It's a free market,

whoever has money can go buy a house." The law existed in both governments.

It's the same for culture, hijab, the internet, security, and negotiations.

I don't want to claim that a government can implement 100% of whatever it wills;

it might not even achieve 30% of it. But if it wants to do something, it does it.

If it doesn't want to, even if you have 10 laws,

in the end, it somehow evades it, saying," They didn't let us, it wasn't possible,"

and doesn't do it. So we go to the ballot box in one day and elect a government,

But first, it's in office for four years, and no one can tell it to step down,

whether we like that government or not.

And again, I have nothing to do with… I don't care about political

factions and such. I'm telling you the reality.

First, it's in office for four years.

Second, the impact of some government actions remains on this country for 40 years.

Right now, in the year 1405,

some things happen in our country,

and if you want to see how it ended up this way,

you shouldn't look at what happened in the past six months,

but what happened in the past 15 years.

You must look at what happened in the past 20 years.

You see, a decision made by a government showed its effects in 1405.

Now, that is either a good thing, and everyone says,' God bless him,'

or a bad thing, and everyone says,' God curse him.' But this is the reality.

So, when some people ignorantly say,'

What difference does it make who becomes president?'

I swear, as a member of parliament,

I see what a difference it makes even who the minister is, let alone the president.

The president represents the executive power of a country, meaning if they wish,

they can say whether this law is implemented or not.

Yes, in parliament you can say,' If he doesn't implement it,

I will impeach that minister, I will do this, I will question him,'

but he can also do a thousand things in response to each of these.

He can do a thousand things in response to it.

It's not like you can say that whatever became law must definitely be implemented.

Otherwise, if…

we had the competence— and here we must admit our own incompetence— if we had the

competence to ensure that whatever is law in this country is implemented,

today we wouldn't have 90% of our current problems. Our problem

is the non- implementation of many good laws.

Our problem is that a government comes and decides to go in one direction,

it goes on and on, and then suddenly another government comes and goes 180 degrees

in the opposite direction. So this shows that it makes a big difference who

is in charge, who holds the government, and who, in short,

runs the country's affairs.