IRAN:Clerics picked Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani yesterday to lead a powerful Iranian government body in a move seen as a boost for the former president, who wants better ties with the West, and a blow to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani's victory over a hardline rival to become speaker of the Assembly of Experts is a further step in his political recovery at the expense of Mr Ahmadinejad, a vociferous critic of the West who beat the pragmatic, mid-ranking cleric in the 2005 presidential race.
But the change will not herald a shift in Iran's foreign or nuclear policy, nor would it have a big impact on the assembly's tendency to stay clear of day-to-day politics, analysts said.
The assembly is an 86-seat body with the power to appoint, supervise and even dismiss the Islamic Republic's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, it has not exercised its power to dismiss a supreme leader and it is not believed to have directly intervened in policymaking.
The clerics, many of them in their 60s or older, met to replace speaker Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, who died in July.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani, Iran's president in the 1990s, has increasingly sided with pro-reform politicians opposed to Mr Ahmadinejad. In the speaker contest he beat Ayatollah Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, an oversight body reformists blame for blocking many of their candidates in elections. Ayatollah Rafsanjani won 41 votes to Ayatollah Jannati's 34, Iranian media sources said.
"It means to hardliners, like Jannati and Ahmadinejad, that is not somebody they can sideline. He is going to play a role in the leadership of the country and they have to come to terms with that," one analyst said.
"Maybe the reformists, after the election, will say 'it is a victory for us, and it is a sign of victory in the parliament [election in March]'," said Amir Mohebian, a conservative commentator.
He said such an assessment by reformists would overstate their position, but the win would add lustre to Rafsanjani's political comeback.