PHOTO: Iran’s Supreme Leader and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani
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Iran’s Supreme Leader, speaking in Tehran on Thursday, issued a warning to former President Hashemi Rafsanjani to limit his public comments and criticism.
The headline of Ayatollah Khamenei’s address, on the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, was his rejection of cooperation with the US. However, a passage on the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s was used against Rafsanjani as well as the Americans.
Ronald Reagan who was a powerful man wrote to @IRKhomeini & sent his men but Imam #Khomeini was indifferent & ignored his promise.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 4, 2015
As Speaker of Parliament in the mid-1980s, Rafsanjani met President Reagan’s envoy, Robert MacFarlane. The Americans sold anti-tank missiles to the Islamic Republic, hoping to get the release of Western hostages in Lebanon and to use the money for the overthrow of the government in Nicaragua.
Last week, Rafsanjani repeated that he had important information about the encounter and the Iran-Contra affair, but that he was choosing to keep it private for now.
The former President has been in a political battle with hardliners since the disputed 2009 Presidential election. He was barred as a Tehran Friday Prayer leader after he supported the right to protest, effectively criticizing the regime’s crackdown on demonstrations, and subsequently lost his position as head of the Assembly of Experts. Threats of prosecution hung over two of his children, with his son Mehdi Hashemi still facing a long prison sentence.
However, Rafsanjani recovered his political position, particularly with the election of his protégé Hassan Rouhani as President in 2013. The former President is still head of the Expediency Council, although his attempt to regain the chair of the Assembly of Experts — which chooses the Supreme Leader and nominally can remove him — was blocked in March.
Rafsanjani has risked a fight with the Supreme Leader with the proposal that, after Khamenei’s death, the leadership should be held by a five-person committee with a specific term rather than an individual for life.
See Iran Analysis: Rafsanjani Criticizes the Supreme Leader as Internal Battle Escalates
In his speech on Thursday, Khamenei attempted to pre-empt any revelations by Rafsanjani, as he continued his denunciation of the US:
In another case, they promised the end of the [1980s Iran-Iraq] war with full compensation. The issue was about billion or trillions of dollars but the Imam [Khomeini] did not trust them and ignored them.
In our current cases, we see and feel that we cannot trust the words of oppressors.
The Supreme Leader also may have been aiming at Rafsanjani with his comments on Khomeini’s beliefs:
Distorting the character…and the path of Imam are an effort to distort the straight path of the Iranian nation. If the path of Imam is lost or forgotten or, God forbid, intentionally put to the side, the Iranian nation will take a hit.
[This should be a] serious warning for officials, experts of the revolution [and] Imam’s former students.
Asserting that there were distortions even during Khomeini’s lifetime, which “had no relation with his character”, the Supreme Leader said, “After his passing, this continued, and some tried to introduce Imam as liberal-minded, which under no conditions existed in his political, intellectual and cultural behavior.”
The views of Rafsanjani, a close confidante on Khomeini, about the late Leader are often cited on his website.
Political Activist Rafii Given 6-Year Sentence
Political activist Hossein Rafii has been sentenced to six years in prison and a two-year prohibition on political and media activity.
Rafii, a senior member of the Nationalist-Religious Party, was charged with “activity and membership in the Nationalist-Religious Council”, “propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic regime by giving interviews to anti-regime media”, and “statements threatening security and using satellite equipment”.
The Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists has been declared an “illegal” and “subversive” group. Many of its top figures have been arrested in recent years, including the late leader Ezatollah Sahabi, Hoda Saber — who died in prison — Massoud Pedram, Taghi Rahmano, Habibollah Peymon, and Mohammad Maleki.
Talks on Final Text of Nuclear Agreement Resume in Vienna
Nuclear talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (Iran, US, Britain, France, Germany, and China) resumed on Friday morning in Vienna, with the two sides drafting the text of a final agreement.
The discussions, at political deputy level, are the sixth round since a nuclear framework was announced on April 2. A deadline of June 30 has been set for a resolution, although Iran, France, and Russia have indicated that this could be extended.
Key issues include the timing of the removal of US, European Union, and UN sanctions; limits on Iran’s nuclear facilities and uranium enrichment; and inspections of Iranian military sites.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had separate meetings with his Russian and Chinese counterparts on Thursday in Moscow.
