Rafsanjani to head Iranian clerical body
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 37 minutes ago
TEHRAN, Iran - Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and longtime Machiavellian figure in Iranian politics, was picked Tuesday to head a powerful clerical body — another defeat for the current president's hard-line faction.
Rafsanjani's election as chairman of the Assembly of Experts means the charismatic cleric will oversee the secretive body that chooses or dismisses the Islamic Republic's ultimate authority, its supreme leader.
The election focuses new attention on Rafsanjani, a complex figure who at various times has been viewed more as hard-liner and at other times as a pragmatist. It also is sure to strengthen his image, tarnished by his loss to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential runoff when he was viewed as arrogant and out of touch with the lives of ordinary Iranians.
Rafsanjani, who is considered more moderate than Ahmadinejad, brokered the deal that made Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supreme leader in 1989. It is unclear if the 73-year-old Rafsanjani has ambitions for the post himself someday or prefers the role of behind-the-scenes kingmaker. Khamenei is 68.
A wealthy man, Rafsanjani controls a multimillion dollar family business empire, one of Iran's largest, and is believed to oppose Ahmadinejad's populist economic policies.
Above all, Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to 1997, is thought to be more pragmatic on issues involving Iran's dealings with the West and disturbed by Iran's growing isolation. He is believed to have played a behind-the-scenes role in Iran's decision to release British sailors who were seized earlier this year, for example.
In Tuesday's election, Rafsanjani defeated Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an extremist within the hard-line camp, to become chairman of the body of 86 senior clerics empowered with monitoring Iran's supreme leader, state-run television reported. Rafsanjani succeeds Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, who died in July.
Analysts said the election showed that more moderate conservatives like Rafsanjani were gaining ground in Iran, where there is increasing discontent with the ruling hard-liners over rising tensions with the West, a worsening economy and price hikes in basic commodities and housing. Ahmadinejad's allies were humiliated in December local elections, in which moderate conservatives won a big victory.
"Rafsanjani's election is yet another no to the fossilized extremists such as Jannati and Mesbah Yazdi. Given differences between Rafsanjani and Khamenei, the election of Rafsanjani is seen as a challenge to the supreme leader," said political analyst Hamid Reza Shokouhi, referring to Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, who is Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor.
While extremists such as Jannati are among the proponents of the theory that the legitimacy of Iran's clerics to rule the country is derived from God, Rafsanjani is believed to side with pro-democracy reformers who believe the government's authority is derived from popular elections.
The Assembly of Experts is considered the pillar of the regime because of its lofty duties: monitoring the all-powerful supreme leader and picking a successor after his death. It has selected a supreme leader only once since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when it chose Khamenei to succeed the revolution's patriarch, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
But the assembly also has been shrouded in secrecy and hasn't published a single public report.
Comments by Rafsanjani just before his election Tuesday suggested said that the assembly would be a more active national player and perhaps its "decisions will be made public someday," according to the official news agency, IRNA.
"If the experts assembly wants to play a more active role in the country's affairs, it has the religious and legal justification to do that. ... Perhaps the assembly will do so in its upcoming term," IRNA quoted Rafsanjani as saying.
Prominent analyst Saeed Leilaz said Rafsanjani has also spoken lately of greater assembly supervision over Khamenei.
"Recently, Rafsanjani talked about the assembly increasing his monitoring of Khamenei. The outside world must know that Rafsanjani's election today is an important development in Iran," he said.
Rafsanjani has long been viewed as a Machiavellian figure in Iranian politics. Besides the experts assembly, he also heads the powerful Expediency Council — a body arbitrating between legislators and a hard-line constitutional watchdog.
He was close to Khomeini throughout the 10 years that followed the 1979 Islamic revolution and also built up strong support among Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
In June 1988, Khomeini gave him control of military affairs, charging him with reversing Iran's battlefield defeats in the war against Iraq.
Rafsanjani also was at the center of the clandestine arms-for-hostages deal with the United States in 1985-86, using his links with Lebanon's Shiite extremists to secure the release of Western hostages held in Lebanon.
When he was first chosen as supreme leader in 1989, Khamenei found himself in the shadow of then-President Rafsanjani. But Khamenei has since increased his hold on power as the commander in chief of the armed forces.
In recent years, Khamenei has allowed hard-liners to undermine Rafsanjani's influence, part of his efforts to bring the former president under his control.
Although Rafsanjani is generally viewed more positively abroad than the hard-liners are, he is among several former top Iranian officials sought by Argentina in connection with that country's worst terror attack, the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people were killed and 200 were wounded when a van pulled up outside the seven-story building and exploded.
Argentine prosecutors allege the attack was orchestrated by leaders of the Iranian government and entrusted to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.
Rafsanjani to head Iranian clerical body
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