PHOTO: Head of Iran’s armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi


In the latest escalation of regime in-fighting, Iran’s head of armed forces has attacked former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, an ally of the Rouhani Government.

Tension has built for months between the Government and its critics, such as the Revolutionary Guards, and the approach of February’s elections for Parliament and the Assembly of Experts have spurred allegations of “sedition” and appeasement of the enemy.

Rafsanjani, a long-time target of hardliners, is receiving particular attention because of statements — repeated last weekend — that the Assembly of Experts should exercise greater supervision of the Supreme Leader and that the Leader should be replaced by a council upon the death of the current ruler, Ayatollah Khamenei.

General Hassan Firouzabadi, joined the attacks on the former President on Friday:

Today, [now] that the sword of sedition is dull — a new gimmick called the “council” will be used as a constitutional strategy for emergency conditions….

The people must be aware that the key to breaking the internal strength of Islamic Iran’s authority, today, is this word ‘council’.

Firouzabadi supported his assault with a reference to Rafsanjani’s declaration of the right to protest after the disputed 2009 Presidential election, a statement that led to the former President’s dismissal as a Tehran Friday Prayer leader:

The people who use this word [council] are the ones who cause trouble for Friday Prayer Leaders….[They are] those who…remained silent [regarding] the extremists deconstructing the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran….

If a council replaces the position of the absolute guardianship of the jurist which is defined in the Constitution…the strength of [Iran’s] unity against America and the Zionists and the imperialist and reactionary enemies will be broken.

On Thursday, the head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, denounced both Rafsanjani and members of the Government.

Declaring that enemies are “disguising themselves as friends of Iran”, Naqdi chided “some members of the administration’s Cabinet”. He continued, “An individual who has an aristocratic lifestyle and has a child studying in the UK – how can he want to understand the pain of the people?”

Rafsanjani, who was President from 1989 and 1997 and is now a close ally of President Hassan Rouhani, is known for his wealth. His son, Mehdi Hashemi, was registered for a Ph.D. at Oxford University before he returned to Iran in September 2012 to face charges linked to his financial activity and the disputed 2009 Presidential election.