Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lost on Tuesday, a key post within the government, ceding the presidency of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, a religious conservative. This Assembly, which has 86 members, is responsible for appointing, monitoring and eventually dismiss the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Moderate conservative and former president of the Islamic Republic (1989-1997), Rafsanjani had announced before the election to appoint a new president of this institution for two years he would not run if nominated Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani. Mahdavi Kani, religious conservative who was prime minister for a year shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979, aged 80.
Mr. Rafsanjani was president of the Assembly of Experts for four years. It takes yet another important position within the regime, as Chairman of the Expediency Council, which advises the guide and arbiter in disputes between parliament and government. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has for several months the target of a broad political offensive of the ultra-conservatives, who accuse him of having supported the reformist opposition in the crisis that followed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.
In recent months, Mr. Rafsanjani, however, distanced himself from the opposition. He condemned the resumption of opposition protests in mid-February, after a year hiatus, the call of opposition leaders reformist former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and former president of Parliament Mehdi Karoubi. 
Moderate conservative and former president of the Islamic Republic (1989-1997), Rafsanjani had announced before the election to appoint a new president of this institution for two years he would not run if nominated Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani. Mahdavi Kani, religious conservative who was prime minister for a year shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979, aged 80.
Mr. Rafsanjani was president of the Assembly of Experts for four years. It takes yet another important position within the regime, as Chairman of the Expediency Council, which advises the guide and arbiter in disputes between parliament and government. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has for several months the target of a broad political offensive of the ultra-conservatives, who accuse him of having supported the reformist opposition in the crisis that followed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009.
In recent months, Mr. Rafsanjani, however, distanced himself from the opposition. He condemned the resumption of opposition protests in mid-February, after a year hiatus, the call of opposition leaders reformist former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and former president of Parliament Mehdi Karoubi.
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- Iran's former president Rafsanjani steps down from assembly role (08/03/2011)
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