Iran new heroes: Rafsanjani, the insider voice

Stakes are getting higher in Tehran. Last weekend violence threatens to shake up the country into a real full scale revolution. The political discrepancies that had been going on underway the apparent unitary leadership for years had arisen.

The opposition has already more heroes and echoes of the movement don’t only return with Moussavi’s name. Two people from a very different background are the new names in the mouths of Tehran reformists: Rafsanjani and Neda.

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is a former president of the Iranian Islamic Republic, father of the revolution of 1979 and the head of two important organs of the Republic, the Assembly of Experts and the Expediency Council. The second one mediates between the Parliament and the Guardian Council; the first one appoints the Supreme Leader and is even capable of oversee him, although that’s an unlikely possibility.

All that, however, didn’t save his family of being prosecuted as many other Iranians are being today. His own daughter Faezeh and several more members of his close familiar circle were detained -and shortly after freed again- in the personification of the fear that many parents have in Tehran. They suffered the repression during the previous revolution and don’t want their children to suffer the same pain. Their children, however, are up to the challenge. That's exactly what Faezeh's brother said when they detained his sister: their own father was in jail for 5 years; they are "prepared" to take whatever it takes for their revolution. Even if it's jail.


Mr. Rafsanjani, however, hasn’t been seen on public since the elections’ results arose. He is supposedly negotiating secretly in Qom with the rest of the 86 members of the Assembly of Experts, gaining support to get the elections annulled. So far now, according to a report (not confirmed) Mr Rafsanjani could have won at least 40 Experts to his cause. If that’s true, it would be the clearest sign of the deep division inside the political elites in Iran.

Each day appears a new break in the Government wall. Last one was Ali Larijani, president of the Parliament. Mr. Larijani was one of the fastest to congratulate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the elections for his victory. However, in an interview in the official Iranian press, Mr. Larijani admitted that “a majority of Iranians doubts the officially announced election results” and “that their views should be respected”.

But still the supreme leader and the Government stand their grounds. Khamenei’s unusual speech of last Friday (he only gives speeches in the end of the Ramadan and the anniversary of 1979’s revolution) puts Mr. Moussavi in a position virtually inexistent until today in Iran: the opposition. He also warned the protesters that they will be responsible of the bloodshed that wourld come from more protests. From the Government, the response has been more violent. The Basij had a letter of marquee to use tear gas, clubs and bullets to repress by force the demonstrations. But that violence maybe could be a fireback for them.





Photo: AP