An Iranian legislator says the country’s parliament is obeying the Supreme Leader and will carry out his orders.

Hossein Jalali made the claim on Tuesday while lawmakers are supposed to represent the people and not to be under the thumb of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Jalali’s statement is not news to most Iranians who over the years have witnessed numerous times how the legislature follows directives from Khamenei’s office on key issues.

The member of the cultural commission of the parliament further defended the performance of the 11th Islamic parliament saying although there were some mistakes, the overall performance of the current Iranian legislature was acceptable.

In recent months many commentators in Iran have slammed the hardliner-dominated parliament for being ineffective both in terms of legislation to help the economy and also for being weak in demanding accountability from the government.

Last month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised the country’s “revolutionary parliament” for passing a bill in 2020 that complicated nuclear negotiations.

“From the beginning of this parliament [2020], based on information I had, I believed that it is a revolutionary parliament, and now after three years I reiterate that,” Khamenei told 290 members of the legislature.

The current parliament was elected in February 2020 in a controversial vote when the Guardian Council, loyal to Khamenei, banned hundreds of relatively moderate candidates and allowed hardliners to gain a strong majority in the legislature.