Arash Aramesh

For the first time, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi has accused former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the chairman of the Assembly of Experts, of representing the views of the opposition. Moslehi, a close alley of President Mahmoud Ahminejad, said that Rafsanjani has claimed that three million Iranian students who have demonstrated against the regime were no longer with the Islamic Republic. Moslehi condemned these remarks saying, “Mr. Rafsanjani says his positions are those he announced during his June Friday prayer sermons. It is shocking that he is repeating the same things mentioned by the leaders of the sedition.”
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Last week in Mashhad, Rafsanjani said that the government’s existence depends upon the people’s support, and if the people in the future no longer support Iran’s leaders, they will no longer be in power. Moslehi attacked these remarks, suggesting that the rule of the supreme leader is up to the people. “Mr. Hashemi says as long as people want the Vali Faqih (the supreme leader) he gets to rule and when they no longer want him he must abdicate.” According to Moslehi, the Vali Faqih derives his legitimacy not from the people, but directly from God.

The relationship between Rafsanjani and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been tense since the two competed in the 2005 presidential election. In that election, Ahmadinejad targeted Rafsanjani as the symbol of wealth and corruption in Iran. In the past four years, supporters of Ahmadinejad have attacked Rafsanjani and his family in unprecedented ways.

This is the first time that a senior intelligence official in Iran has publicly made accusations against Rafsanjani, which could signal that Ahmadinejad could take action to prosecute, if not him, then members of his family. Last week, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezhei, Iran’s chief prosecutor, had said that the families of Iran’s high-ranking leaders are not immune to prosecution, referring to Mehdi Hashemi, Rafsanjani’s son who is now in London.