Arash Aramesh

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Iran’s former chief justice and currently one of Rafsanjani’s deputies in the Assembly of Experts, has unleashed a new wave of attacks against Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the chairman of the Assembly of Experts. Rafsanjani has been the focal point of attacks by the allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since he defeated Rafsanjani in the 2005 presidential race. Since then, Ahmadinejad and his supporters, such as Yazdi, have targeted Rafsanjani and his family, accusing them of corruption and abuse of power.

In the months following the disputed June 12 election, some well-known clerics, such as Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and Ahmad Jannati, the chairman of the powerful Guardian Council, have publicly criticized Rafsanjani, confirming peoples’ suspicions of a wide and ongoing rift among the highest ranking clerics of the Islamic Republic. In an effort that seems to be well orchestrated, supporters of President Ahmadinejad have targeted Rafsanjani, who has been one of the pillars of the Islamic Republic since 1979.

Rafsanjani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are the only two officials in Iran who have occupied Iran’s highest positions since 1979. Most senior officials from the first generation of the Islamic revolution have been either killed by the opposition, such as Ayatollah Beheshti, or marginalized by the government, such as Ayatollah Montazeri. Rafsanjani is now the last man still standing from that generation.

The new political elites in Iran, which include the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and members from the Ahmadinejad generation, are more than willing to do away with the old guard, and unify the country’s political forces. Ahmadinejad and his supporters have never been comfortable with Rafsanjani’s moderate and middle of the road approach to domestic and foreign policy issues.

On December 14, Yazdi made public accusations against Rafsanjani. He said that when he was in charge of Iran’s judiciary, which coincided with Rafsanjani’s two terms as president, the former president blocked the justice system’s attempts to investigate charges against Rafsanjani’s daughter, presumably the politically active Faezeh Hashemi.

Yazdi, who was Rafsanjani’s deputy in the 1980s as vice-chairman of the parliament, accused Rafsanjani of abusing his power numerous times to shield his children from prosecution by the justice system. Yazdi has been one of the most vocal senior clerics in Iran against Rafsanjani. After Rafsanjani’s controversial Friday prayer sermons this past June, when he defended the opposition movement and said there were doubts about the validity of election results, Yazdi made harsh remarks about the Chairman of the Expediency Council and warned him not to abandon the path of the Islamic Revolution.

According to reports, in the last meeting of the Assembly of Experts this past summer, Yazdi approached Rafsanjani and warned him not to distance himself from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He even tried to dictate to Rafsanjani the contents of his speech addressing the Assembly.

Several members of the Assembly of Experts, the body in charge of choosing and monitoring the actions of the Supreme Leader, approached Yazdi and condemned his behavior. Yazdi became upset, felt physically ill, and was taken back to Qom after resting in his office for a few hours.

It is interesting to mention that Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a staunch supporter of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was one of the opponents of the current Supreme Leader and the constitutional modifications expanding the powers of the Supreme Leader.