IRAN: Clerics elect former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over a hardline rival to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts

Clerics elect former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over a hardline rival to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts. Clerics picked Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday (September 4) to lead a powerful Iranian government body, in a boost for the former president who wants better ties with the West and a blow to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The election of Rafsanjani as speaker of the Assembly of Experts is a boost for the former president who wants better ties with the West and a blow to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Assembly of Experts is an 86-seat body of clerics with the power to appoint, supervise and dismiss the Islamic Republic's highest authority, Ayatollah Khamenei. The clerics, many of them in their 60s or older, met to replace Speaker Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, who died earlier in July. Rafsanjani won the election over rival Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the conservative Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog which also vets election candidates, the official IRNA agency reported. The vote was 41 votes for Rafsanjani and 30 for Jannati. It did not say how many of the clerics were present. Analysts said Rafsanjani's win showed his skill in bridging more than one political camp and would enhance his standing with traditional conservatives in the seminaries of Qom, the heartland of the clerical establishment south of Tehran. Commenting on U.S. president George W. Bush's visit to Iraq's Anbar province on Monday, Rafsanjani told the Assembly of Experts "Last night Mr. Bush entered Iraq unannounced and stayed in the military base of al-Anbar, in a very problematic region, just to say that Iraq is safe." Rafsanjani was president from 1989 to 1997 and has also served as parliamentary speaker and armed forces commander. Ahmadinejad then beat him in the 2005 presidential race. He has become a vocal critic of the president, even if his attacks are often veiled. Marking his comeback, he was top of the vote count in Tehran in the December election to the Assembly of Experts.

ITN Source | September 4, 2007

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