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Former Iranian President Blasts Government
Atta Kenare, AFP / Getty Images
Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani spoke at Friday Prayer and delivered pointed criticism of the handling of the Iranian election and the arrest of protesters. Demonstrators took to the streets. Reza Aslan says the revolution may not be over.
In the end, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani did not disappoint. For a man who has made a career out of mediating from the middle and playing both sides, Rafsanjani delivered an unusually pointed criticism of the Iranian regime’s handling of the election crisis. He explicitly condemned the Guardian Council’s haphazard investigation into claims of election fraud and demanded the immediate release of all the protesters who had been arrested and detained by the Revolutionary Guard. “We do not need people in prison for [demonstrating],” Rafsanjani said. “Let’s allow them to return to their families.”
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the sermon came when Rafsanjani hinted that progress has been made in his attempts to come up with some kind of compromise with the regime over the election crisis, though he remained elusive about what that could possibly entail. “I have some suggestions,” he said, in an oblique reference to his work behind the scenes with Iran’s power brokers. “I have spoken to some members of the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts about them, too.”
Protesters in front of the Interior Ministry—the ministry that oversaw the elections—shouted “Down with Dictator!” and “Our Neda isn’t dead; it is the government that’s dead!”
It was this comment that sparked the most interesting of the chants and slogans that repeatedly interrupted Rafsanjani’s sermon: “People didn’t get killed to make concessions!” the overwhelmingly pro-Mousavi crowd shouted, an indication that the opposition may no longer be in the mood for a political compromise.
Indeed, the slogans and chants of the crowd inside Tehran University were so disruptive that at one point Rafsanjani shouted “Stop chanting! I can’t make out what you are saying. I am saying what you want to hear but I am saying it better than you (man az shoma behtar migam).”
Photos snapped of the speech clearly show Mir Hossein Mousavi in the audience, but it is the photographs outside of Tehran University that tell the real story of the day. Hundreds of thousands of green-clad protesters (at least two eyewitnesses told me that it may have been closer to one million) flooded the streets after Rafsanjani’s speech. The demonstrations engulfed the city, from Tehran University all the way to the notorious Evin Prison, where most of the arrested protesters are detained. Protesters in front of the interior ministry—the ministry that oversaw the elections—shouted “Down with Dictator!” and “‘Our Neda isn’t dead; it is the government that's dead!” Despite the widespread use of tear gas to disperse the protesters and sporadic reports of violence, it seems as though the demonstrations have overwhelmed the security forces.
Night has fallen on Tehran. The numbers of people in the streets have dwindled. For the 30th-consecutive night since the elections, the rooftop chant of “God is Great” is echoing through the city—a reminder to all that the revolution is far from over.
Reza Aslan, a contributor to the Daily Beast, is assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside and senior fellow at the Orfalea Center on Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He is the author of the bestseller No god but God and How to Win a Cosmic War.
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Reza Aslan, a contributor to the Daily Beast, is assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside and senior fellow at the Orfalea Center on Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He is the author of the bestseller No god but God and How to Win a Cosmic War.
PEOPLE may ruin their chances for a POSSIBLE Change by not accepting one clerical Leader like Rafsanjani or Khatami.
SOME Iranians in America are asking for too Radical change and are NOT WISE and PRUDENT.
I hope things turn out well for the Iranians and IRAN
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: Serving at the highest level of the present dictatorship since the fall of Shah, President of Iran from 1989 - 1997, at the head of two of the most powerful institutions in the country - Assembly of Experts responsible for electing/dismissing the supreme leader and the Expediency Council with the power to arbitrate between the Parliament and the Guardian Council among whose powers are the interpretation of the Constitution and determining the eligibility of those running for public office.
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has since the revolution become one of the richest men in the world according to Forbes magazine. How did this happen?
Is he not to a great extent responsible for the survival of the present regime? Is it probable that his siding with the uprising is revenging his being defeated in 2005 for another term as president by Ahmadinejad who also accused him of corruption?
Is it probable that he is looking after his own interests and not the interests of millions of people in Iran who are risking their lives in their opposition to the regime because they want to be free of oppression? What my native land needs is a new constitution in compliance with the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights. Mousavi replacing Ahamadinejad would fall far short of the fundamental changes needed as long as the basic structure of the government remains as it is.
Very perceptive and intelligent analysis, Reza.
Shukran.
The major sub-text of Rafi's sermon, the sermon within a sermon, was "I have turned Qom". That is why a number of Nejad's supporters got up and left midway.
al-Islam itself is on the side of the Green Wave, witnessed by Rafi's many references to the life of the Prophet, the 1979 revolution, and islamic law.
It has been said that Rafi spent the last month in Qom consolidating support, and I do not think a cautious savy political survivor like him would have resurfaced without securing Qom's backing.
So what is the nature of this compromise? For 20 years Rafsanjani has been lobbying to replace the position of Supreme Ayatollah with an Islamic Council made up of 3 or more. I think a seat on the council is being offered to Khamenei or Mojtaba as a graceful climbdown. Sadly (heh) I also think Nejad will be forced to resign as a scapegoat.
Note that Rafi directly rebuked the Guardian Council but not Khamenei or the regime.
So what happens next is up to the regime.
They can release the prisoners and climbdown.
But if the prisoners are not released by the 40th day after Neda Agha Sultan's martyrdom (July 30th) I predict that Evin will become the Bastille.
Rafi's speech was subtle and powerful, and playful even....I especially liked how he built parallels to the 1979 revolution, and the implication by analogy that Khamenei has become the tyrant Shah. The punch line was that the people, oppressed by injustice, broke the back of the Shah.
It certainly looks like they merely replaced one dictatorship with another after 1979, even if the one that exists now is more clerical-fascist than secular fascist. There is a lesson in all that about never giving one man absolute power again, no matter what title he uses.
The velayat-e faiqh was a device Khomeini designed to protect the fledgling Islamic Republic from western meddling after the revolution.
Islam is a consensus religion.....the velayat-e faiqh gave authority to a single head of state, like the pope in catholicism.
Khomeini waived the scholarship requirement for Khamenei....he was not an ayatollah at time of his ascencion.
Perhaps insufficient scholarship has caused a failure of adab in Khameini.
matoko
That is one hell of an insightful analysis!
Is the expansion of the leadership to a 3 (or, I have heard 5 as a constitutional option) enough of a dilution of absolute power to satisfy the masses?
Is Rafi's aim, ultimately, selfless enough to avoid teh attraction to becoming the next strongman? If not, will the will of the masses be strong enough to resist?
How about the areas outside of Tehran? Which way does the rest of the country lean on democratization?
There is no altruism in nature.
Rafasanjani is a scholar, an ayatollah, but not a seyyed, meaning of the line of the imam. Both are required by the constitution to be Supreme Ayatollh.
Khamenei was not an ayatollah at the time of his ascencion by diktat from Khomeini, and the constitution had to be changed.
It could be that Rafsanjani would have a place on the council.
I think Montazeri would......and possibly Sayeed Ali al Sistani, the titular head of all shi'ia islam.....wouldn't that be a kick?
The reconciliation of Najaf and Qom, the New Caliphate.
;)
also....do not say "democratization".
democracy is a dirty word to the populations of MENA thanks to Operation Ajax and Bush.
Iran is an islamic republic, based on the rule of law. A large part of Rafi's sermon was about islamic law that had been broken. Like America, Iran is a meritocracy. But the merits are different.
Heredity (line of the Imam) and islamic scholarship are the merits valued in Iran.
This regime in Iran does not seem to be one that puts great stock in negotiation, compromises and peaceful climbdowns. But even they must realize that the election results were so blatantly false that no one over the age of two could possibly believe them. Nevertheless, they kept insisting that they were valid in spite of all evidence to the contrary, and kept doubling down on No Count Ahmadinejad.
Well, we Americans don't know all that much about Iran any more. It's doubtful that we ever did, given the monumental errors that we have made in dealing with that country over the decades. We have not even had an embassy in the country for 30 years, and are not even allowed to visit thre, so that means we know even less about what's really going on behind the scenes or beneath the surface.
In short, they would know far better than we do what needs to be done. In these events, we Americans are mostly just onlookers and bystanders, even though some people like me think we should at least offer moral support to the democracy movement--if that's what it really is.
There's not much else we can do, and probably not much else we SHOULD do.
For the U.S. to be just a bystander is a bit unrealistic because of the major influence, whether we like it or not, the U.S. already has in the region. However, even if the U.S. was to take a neutral position, it could take the name of the main exile opposition (resistance movement) off the state department's black list which the British and EU high courts have ruled it as illegal and baseless. This is a matter that most Americans are not aware of and it is ironically taking side with the theocratic dictatorship of Iran ! As this main opposition (resistance) in exile's (NCRI) agenda is to topple the entire regime. So, to get closer to being nuetral, U.S. state department must take these people off the sham black list. And again, this is a matter that does not make sense, and Americans don't know much about. Just as it would not have made sense as if, for example, the French resistance was blacklisted.
no...we shall witness. any interference will be exploited to paint the Green Wave as foreign agents.
Obama has done great work already.
Dreyfuss
we are witnesses.
;)
I am thankful for Rafsanjani's speach and Reza's coverage of it. Please don't let this slip from the news. I think this is one of the most compelling and important stories in the world right now. The courage and determination of the Iranian demonstrators is awe inspiring and I long for the day that a nation of such people can be a trusted and respected friend of our nation.
Nico and Sully have the l33t coverage. Rightwing sites like Hotair don't cover the Green Revolution hardly at all...and when they do they get it hopelessly wrong, or scream at Obama for doing the right thing, instead of the the thing the neocons did.
That thing would be.....meddling.
Absolutely! I wish we could do more but your right. This is clearly a case of less is more.
I suppose you could say that we have to "LET" freedom ring as opposed to making it so.
Do you ever wonder if you are being conned? We have learned through bitter experience with our own leaders that not all is a simple as the "news" providers exclaim. Nor can we take what any Iranian (let alone an American President) says at face value - these are very complicated people with a rich secular and religious history that goes much farther back than good ol' America.
Before taking sides - meddling as it were - we really do need to understand what's going and that will take time and effort.
About Obama, he is surrounded by experts and consultants and lobbyists - most of the rest of us just have the Beast and some have actualy living experience in Iran. Clearly Obama is much better informed than the rest of us - the only question is, do you trust his motives and his skill?
So, blindly (as most of you are who are) calling for him to "do something more than he has done" is stupid and just demonstrates your ignorance or your mistrust. f you don't trust him then I don't think you have a rational position to ask him to do anything. In that case, be truthful about it and just say you don't trust him. That would make clear any additional directions you might give.
I think Obama is doing exactly the right thing.
On empirical data, ie results so far, I trust him absolutely.
OTOH, John McCain is attempting to meddle, and to use Neda Agha Sultan's martyrdom as a club to beat on Obama with!
Evil old man. No different than Khamenei as far as I can see.
;)
I'd like to congratulate the Obama Administration, the CIA, the U.S. Armed Forces, and various other spies in the region for CAUSING Mr. Rafsanjani to speak out against his own Government. Good job men!
are you some sort of moron?
The 1979 islamic revolution was a direct result of Operation Ajax.
Obama's Cairo speech created an opening for the Green Wave to push for more open relations with the US and the West.
Neocon policy is an Epic Fail.
David Kilcullen said on Zakariah's sunday show we had NO BUSINESS going into Iraq.
Deal.
Deal.
Thank you.
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