Rafsanjani May Run for the Top Position in the Leadership Assembly

Rooz Online

Speaking to Tasnim news agency affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, seyed Abolhassan Mahdavi, a cleric member of the Majles Khobregan (the Assembly of Experts on Leadership, a body that legally monitors the work of the country’s supreme leader) said, “There have been no ordered or regular talks to replace ayatollah Mahdavi Kani (the current head of the influential Assembly of Experts) who remains in coma but there are rumors floating around. We hope to see his recovery so we again witness his leadership of the Assembly.”

His interview went further and pointing to Western media he said, “Western media generally do not have detailed information about the developments in the Assembly. They do not know much about the trust that exists between the members of the body and the value and position that the experts enjoy. They strive to create division and diversion and want to misinform and incite public opinion. We request the public not to pay attention to such issues in the Western press until the Majles convenes in September by which time ayatollah Kani’s heal should improve and there would be no need for a new leadership in the Assembly.”

Another senior member of the assembly, ayatollah Ali Akbar Ghoreishi also spoke about the body to the media and said that he hoped Kani would recover to lead the assembly. He sounded more specific about the future of the assembly. “The issue of succession (of Kani) will be discussed at the September 3rd meeting. I suspect that ayatollah Shahrudi or ayatollah Janati will be candidates. Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi and ayatollah Khazali too are qualified but weak health-wise, so I do not think they will run.”

Yet another influential member of the assembly ayatollah Ahmad Khatami also commented on the subject by saying that the candidates will be known only on the day of the session.

These comments are in contrast to what has been said so far about the future of the leadership of the Assembly of Experts. Those members who made comments use to repeat the same message: there was no need to search for a new chairman for the body. In a preparatory Assembly session on June 25th the current deputy chairman ayatollah Shahrudi presided over the meeting and everybody said there was no need to search for a new chairman in the September session. One cleric, Mohsen Heidari, even said that there was no need to hold elections for a new chairman at the next regular bi-yearly meeting in March of 2015, adding, “Should any leadership member pass away, elections would be held to find a successor for him at the first meeting after that.” At the same time, cleric Ahmad Khatami told Fars news agency, closely affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, that ayatollah Shahrudi, the current first deputy, would preside over the Assembly sessions.

An article in last week’s issue of a right-wing weekly magazine, Mosalas, had an interesting angle whereby the article revealed perhaps the changes that have been shaping, at least in perceptions. It wrote under the title of “The Return of the Ayatollah to Official Politics” that with Shahrudi actively in the leadership position, there was a “new phase” in the assembly.

With the changes in Kani’s health and pressures to replace him, the view that there would be no elections in the assembly soon or that the succession issue would be addressed only after Kani, has changed. Just a few days ago, during a television program titled Shenasname broadcast on the state-run national television network, ayatollah Ahmad Khatami even raised the possibility of Hashemi Rafsanjani returning to the leadership position. In response to a question from the program anchor who asked about Rafsanjani’s possible return, he said, “This possibility exists. He will be a candidate. We have said that for now Shahrudi will preside over the sessions. But foreign media have interpreted this to mean that the issue of the next chairman of the Assembly has been concluded. This is not the case. He may be a candidate as well, but there will be elections.”

During the same interview, Khatami also raised the other concern that exists, beyond the succession issue. He said that some were trying to create enthusiasm for the future sessions, “but the concern is that the Assembly, which determines the supreme leader, will become embroiled in political games and rivalries. The concern is that that some people may visit others and even buy them or issue threats.”

He also mentioned that there may be some lobbying for the next elections, adding that there had till now not been any lobbying but that some associations such as the Teacher’s Association of the Ghom Theological Center normally presented their choice while the Association of Combatant Clerics did the same. But there is no tradition of lobbying, he said.

During last Friday’s congregational prayers at Tehran University, ultra conservative cleric ayatollah Janati made a reference to pressures being applied to postpone the trial of a member of the seditionists – a term regime clerics and officials use for the leaders of the Green Movement who have been either under house arrest or in prison since the 2009 demonstrations. His remarks are interpreted to have meant Rafsanjani’s son.

Name News website, close to Mostafa Pourmohammadi (an insider with very close ties to Khamenei’s office and a former prosecutor and intelligence official), wrote a piece titled “The United Front of Janati and Mesbah Yazdi against ayatollah Hashemi (Rafsanjani)” in which the author expressly wrote that these two clerics had joined hands in the past to prevent Rafsanjani from getting the chairmanship of the Assembly of Experts. He claims in the article that the front comprising Rafsanjani, Nategh Nouri, Rouhani and Khatami was a “serious threat” to the hardliners’ front and that the group planned to moderate the Majles and the Assembly of Experts.

The next round of elections in the Assembly of Experts on Leadership will be held in the month of March of 2015, coinciding with the elections for the Majles.