Editing Assembly of Experts (section)

===Limits of power===
How much actual power the Assembly has to supervise or oversee the Supreme Leader has been questioned. The assembly has never dismissed or even questioned a sitting Supreme Leader and, as all of its meetings and notes are strictly confidential, it has never been known to challenge or otherwise publicly oversee any of the Supreme Leader's decisions.<ref>"Iran Announces Second Extension of Voting," Reuters, 23 October 1998. quoted in {{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Robin |title=The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran |date=2001 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Group |page=317 note 26 |isbn=9780307766076 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=25_l12OBeYkC&dq=%22Iran+Announces+Second+Extension+of+Voting%2C%22+Reuters%2C+23+October+1998.&pg=PA317 |access-date=13 October 2022}}</ref> All candidates to the Assembly (as well as the President and the Majlis or Parliament), are selected by the [[Guardian Council]], half of whose members are selected by the Supreme Leader.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/rafsanjani-breaks-taboo-over-selection-of-irans-next-supreme-leader|title=Rafsanjani breaks taboo over selection of Iran's next supreme leader|date=14 December 2015|website=The Guardian|access-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161218132154/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/rafsanjani-breaks-taboo-over-selection-of-irans-next-supreme-leader|archive-date=18 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Also, all directly elected members after the vetting process by the Guardian Council still have to be approved by the Supreme Leader.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/ir00000_.html|title=ICL – Iran – Constitution|website=Servat.unibe.ch|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821093931/http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/ir00000_.html|archive-date=21 August 2018|url-status=live}} {{cite web|url=http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2016/02/09-iran-election-assembly-of-experts-explainer-borden|title=Everything you need to know about Iran's Assembly of Experts election|website=Brookings.edu|date=30 November 2001 |access-date=1 July 2016}}</ref>

Furthermore, there have been instances of Supreme Leader [[Ali Khamenei]] publicly criticizing members of the Assembly, resulting in that member's arrest and an end to their time on the Assembly—an example being Khamenei's denouncing of then-member of the Assembly [[Ahmad Azari Qomi]] as a "traitor" after the publishing of an open letter by Qomi criticizing Khamenei, resulting in Qomi's arrest and the eventual rejection by the Guardian Council of his candidacy for re-election to the Assembly.<ref name="papers.ssrn.com">{{Cite journal |last=Künkler |first=Mirjam |date=2009-05-13 |title=The Special Court of the Clergy (Dādgāh-Ye Vizheh-Ye Ruhāniyat) and the Repression of Dissident Clergy in Iran |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1505542 |language=en |location=Rochester, NY|doi=10.2139/ssrn.1505542 |ssrn=1505542 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=iran-human-rights-1997>{{cite web|url=http://www.iran.org/humanrights/AM037.htm|title=Action memorandum 037 – The Foundation for Democracy in Iran|date=4 December 1997}}</ref>