NCRI – Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, commenting on the removal of Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from his post as the head of the clerical regime’s Assembly of Experts, said: Elimination of Rafsanjani by Khamenei is the result of culmination of internal rift and the biggest lethal surgery within the clerical rule. This is a turning point in the course of heightening internal crisis that will expedite the trend of the regime’s downfall.
Rafsanjani was replaced this morning by Mahdavi Kani during a session of the Assembly on the basis of a scenario by Khamenei.
The position of Khamenei as supreme leader for 21 years (since June 1989) owes mainly to Rafsanjani and rested on him. As the leader of the Iranian Resistance has repeatedly emphasized over the past twenty years, the sidelining of Rafsanjani by Khamenei and disrupting the balance between this antagonist but inseparable pair, signals the certain downfall of the regime left by Khomeini.
Mrs. Rajavi recalled a statement by the NCRI issued in July 2000 declaring that the misfortune of Rafsanjani, the kingpin of the clerical rule for two decades, reflects the state of the entire regime. This is an important sign of the phase of downfall of the regime. Various factions within the regime also acknowledge this fact.
Mrs. Rajavi said: Khamenei, faced with the storm of uprisings for freedom in the region and in Iran and in face of accelerating trend of developments, finds no other alternative but to consolidate internally and beat the drums of extremist policies and war against people of Iran and the international community. In these circumstances, the inevitable removal of Rafsanjani is the immediate consequence of the mounting new uprisings and resistance of the Iranian people. It undermines Khamenei’s credibility within the faltering regime and expedites the fall of the entire clerical dictatorship.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 8, 2011