Al-Monitor- The recurring debate in Iran over reviving the position of prime minister has been resumed. This time, however, the discussion appears to be taking a somewhat more serious turn, with a number of parliamentarians preparing to obtain the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to proceed from talk to action.


For a decade after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran had a parliamentary political system. Mehdi Bazargan served as the country's first post-revolutionary prime minister, before his�government resigned�following Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's endorsement of the US Embassy takeover in November 1979. The last prime minister was Mir Hossein Mousavi, who held the office from 1981 to 1989, concurrent with much of the Iran-Iraq War.

In 1989, the constitution was amended to abolish the premiership, with the responsibilities of the office divided between the president and first vice president. The move was primarily driven by repeated disputes between the prime minister and president, including tensions over their areas of authority and the appointment of ministers. During the past decade, however, reverting to a parliamentary system has been raised on several occasions.

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