December 10, 2009
Former president and current chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council and Assembly of Experts Hashemi Rafsanjani, has once more come under attack by the members of the Ahmadinejad government and his supporters, for supporting Iranian protesters.

Haydar Moslehi, Minster of Intelligence,  attacked Rafsanjani saying: “Ayatollah  Rafsanjani’s outrageous notions are identical to the notions of the ringleaders of these riots.”  Speaking at an assembly organized by the seminary in Qom, Moslehi added that the government is building a legal case against Rafsanjani’s son.

Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who so far has been careful in voicing his support for the protestors, finally spoke out against the regime’s tactics. He maintained that the political atmosphere has become clearly antagonistic and that there is a lack of tolerance for constructive criticism. He also clearly stated that the political infighting within the regime has reached a destructive point.  The regime authorities however continue t0 deny any crisis among their ranks and between the regime.

“Mr. Hashemi in one of his statements claims that three million educated students are against the system and also claims that our supreme leadership and our regime should only be there as long as people want it; if people don’t want us, that we must step down” Moslehi added.

Criticism of Velayat-e Faghih has been a strict taboo in the Islamic Republic which was broken in the post-election events because Ayatollah Khamenei rushed to Ahmadinejad’s support even though there were nationwide doubts against the legitimacy of the elections and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in them.  He then claimed that the extent of the so-called conspiracy against the regime goes beyond the recent election and are yet to be identified.

Translated from Persian to English by Planet Iran staff

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