Arash Aramesh

High-ranking Iranian officials and a number of foreign diplomats met with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei March 4 in a ceremony held to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohammad. For the first time since the disputed June 12 election, both Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the chairman of the Expediency Council, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared under one roof.

For the past nine months, Ahmadinejad has refused to attend the Expediency Council meetings chaired by Rafsanjani. Meanwhile, Rafsanjani did not appear at Ahmadinejad’s inauguration this past summer and has shied away from any high-level government ceremony in which Ahmadinejad was present.

During his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad accused Rafsanjani of being the leader of organized efforts against him and claimed that Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and former President Mohammad Khatami worked around the Rafsanjani nucleus. Ahmadinejad’s supporters have waged one of the most intense rhetorical campaigns against Rafsanjani and his family in the past nine months. Pro-government sources accuse Mehdi Hashemi, Rafsanjani’s oldest son, and Faezeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani’s fourth child, of having organized “illegal” demonstrations in the aftermath of the June 12 election.

Last week in an interview with Fars News, a pro-government news site with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Morteza Bakhtiari, the minister of justice, said that the Ministry has finally filed cases for Rafsanjani’s children to investigate their alleged involvement in post-election unrest in Tehran.

On February 25, Ayatollah Khamenei met with members of the Assembly of Experts, chaired by Rafsanjani. Many observers interpreted Rafsanjani’s affectionate gestures towards Khamenei as a sign that a backdoor deal has been reached and moderate conservatives led by Rafsanjani were returning to the fold. Rafsanjani’s appearance today strengthens suspicions that he has reached a rapprochement with Khamenei and the Supreme Leader is willing to allow moderate conservatives to have a more significant role in running the country.

For instance, Rafsanjani has started deliberations on a significant and controversial piece of legislation in the Expediency Council which would reduce the powers of the Guardian Council in regards to elections. According to Rafsanjani, the Supreme Leader asked the Expediency Council to address shortcomings in the existing law, therefore giving him the prerogative to handle this issue.

It appears that the Supreme Leader is wary of the increasing political influence he granted to the pro-Ahmadinejad faction and the IRGC. In order to create a balance of power in Iran, Khamenei is now seeking to include moderate conservatives in the game while striving to eliminate the reformists and the Green Movement represented by Moussavi and Karroubi.