Head of Iran’s Expediency Council renewed his allegiance to Iran’s Supreme leader saying he knows of no one who could replace the leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mehr news agency reports that in a meeting with a group of Shiraz academics, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani said his relationship with Ayatollah Khamenei was “good and with mutual understanding.”
He added however that he does have “differences of opinion” on certain issues which he tries to resolve these differences through dialogue with him and the “influential people in the regime.”
He stressed that in finality he obeys the will of the Supreme Leader.
In the widespread protests that followed the presidential elections of 2009, Hashemi Rafsanjani criticized the actions of the state against the protesters and supported their demand to recount the votes. Protesters maintained that the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rigged and that their votes were stolen.
In the course of a severe crackdown on protesters, Ayatollah Rafsanjani was also stigmatized for lending his support to the opposition and condemned by the leader for remaining silent in the face of anti-government protests that tool the shape of mass protests on the streets of the country.
Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family became a target of repeated attacks by pro-government forces and the moderate cleric was alter removed from his position as the head of the Assembly of Experts which oversees the actions of the Supreme Leader.
Hashemi Rafsanjani insisted that he has never remained silent in the course of the country’s developments and added: “Conflict, in this juncture while we are being threatened from every direction and are in grave need of unity, is very harmful for the regime and our nation.”
The head fo the Expediency Council went on to say that “isolation of extremist groups and pushing them out of the scene” is the first step toward “positive change and development in society.”
He went on to speak for “mutual trust of the people, political and media activists in the regime, holding free parliamentary elections and press freedom.”
He went on to criticize the current administration for the inefficiencies in the system.
The attacks against the administration have gained momentum in recent weeks as a rift between the supreme leader and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has given the president’s critics a green light to move against him.
