The BBC reports: Iran’s former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has lost his position as head of the Assembly of Experts, which selects the supreme leader and supervises his activities. Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani was selected to replace him.
By Phil Wilayto for AlterNet As this is being written, official announcements in Iran today of a landslide victory by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are being met with cries of “fraud” by supporters of his principal challenger, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The New York Times is reporting that “at least one person had been shot dead in clashes with the police in Vanak Square in Tehran. Smoke from burning
by Simon Tisdall for The Guardian The man accused by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of masterminding the opposition campaign to oust him from the presidency has dropped out of view since election day. But Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani remains a formidable figure in Iranian politics with a network of well-placed allies straddling the reformist and moderate conservative camps. If any one leader is able to force a re-run of last Friday’s disputed
Al-Manar TV reports that the former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Tuesday. Rafsanjani becomes the second head of the Assembly of Experts – the body which supervises the work of the supreme leader – after the death of previous chairman Ayatollah Ali Meshkini who led the body for its 27 years of existence. The ex-president polled 41 votes from fellow members
