NCRI – The Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) ” control the economy as well as domestic and foreign policy and they will not be satisfied with anything short of the entire country,” says Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president of the Iranian regime.
In a meeting with former state governors speaking openly about the rift between him and the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, criticized the IRGC’s vast economic and political influence.
Only the supreme leader could rein in the Revolutionary Guards, he added, and seeing how there is no hope for collaboration between himself and Khamenei, “it would not be wise” for him to run for the presidency in the upcoming regime’s presidential election.
He said that he did not foresee a situation in which he and Khamenei could work together.
According to Saham news agency those present at the meeting said, he referred to his recent meeting with Ali Khamenei, saying that the supreme leader apparently does not perceive the country as facing the same problems that concern Rafsanjani.
Rafsanjani is reported to have said “the leader no longer trusts me, though I acted as a brother toward him”.
In the meeting with former governors, Rafsanjani said: “I was the one who brought Mr Khamenei to Tehran from [the provincial northeastern city of] Mashhad and, despite opposition from many revolutionary friends, I facilitated his joining the Council of the Revolution … The rest is well-known.”
Rafsanjani’s tenure as president, from 1989 to 1997, was a repressive period, characterized by tight media control and political executions and assassinations as well as exporting terrorism abroad.
