Factional struggle deepens within Iranian ruling elite

[Hannah Bell]

By Peter Symonds
19 June 2009


To date, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who backed Ahmadinejad, appears to be taking a conciliatory line towards Mousavi and his backers. He has not authorised wholesale repression against Ahmadinejad’s opponents...

The political differences between the backers of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi are tactical in nature. So-called pragmatic conservatives led by former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani came together with various “reformers,” including ex-president Mohammad Khatami, to support Mousavi as a means of affecting a shift in foreign and economic policy.

Rafsanjani and Khatami have both been critical of Ahmadinejad’s anti-US demagogy that has led to Iran’s further economic isolation. With the election of Obama, layers of the Iranian elite see the opportunity to ease tensions with the US, impose a free market agenda and open the country up to foreign investment. Despite their tactical character, these disputes are nonetheless bitter and have intensified as Iran has been hit by falling oil prices and the global economic recession.

...While the so-called reformers like Khatami have played their role in casting Mousavi, previously known for his hard-line conservative views, as a liberal, the key powerbroker is Rafsanjani. As Guardian correspondent Simon Tisdall noted, the man nicknamed the “shark” and the “kingmaker” has made “no bones about helping to finance and direct Mir Hossein Mousavi’s campaign to topple Ahmadinejad.”

Rafsanjani brought together conservatives and reformers in an alliance behind Mousavi, but may have also had a hand in nominating Karroubi and Rezaei to split the Ahmadinejad vote and force the election to a second round. He opened his string of private universities for Mousavi supporters to use as campaign bases. His son Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, who ran a sophisticated election monitoring operation from Azad University, boasted to the New York Times that “it is parallel to the Interior Ministry. But ours is secret.”

Following last Friday’s poll, Rafsanjani has remained silent, but is reportedly in Qom, a centre of Islamic scholars, marshalling support among the clerical establishment. Rafsanjani heads the powerful Assembly of Experts—the only body that constitutionally has the power to discipline or even remove Khamenei as supreme leader. Such a step would be unprecedented and would inevitably provoke an open political battle with unpredictable consequences. The Guardian also reported that some opposition chants are beginning to target Khamenei himself, likening him to the Chilean dictator General Pinochet.

Many signs point to fierce factional infighting behind the scenes. Several prominent dissident clerics have made public criticisms of the election result...

At the same time, Ahmadinejad and his backers have been at work. Some 220 of 290 members of parliament have written to Ahmadinejad endorsing his win. The high figure is significant, as Ahmadinejad has faced sharp opposition from parliament, particularly over his budgets and economic policies. Just prior to the election, the parliament rejected Ahmadinejad’s proposal for cutbacks in government subsidies on fuel, electricity and water, mainly because it did not include restraints on overall state spending...

Amid this intense factional struggle, both sides are exploiting the concerns of working people and youth for democratic rights and decent living standards to their own ends. Despite his vague promises of freedom, Mousavi is no more committed to “democracy” than his opponents. The implementation of his free market agenda, which will inevitably result in huge new burdens on the majority of working people, cannot be imposed without provoking resistance. As he did during his term as prime minister in the 1980s, Mousavi would not hesitate to use the full force of the state to enforce his policies...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/iran-j19.shtml