Rafsanjani said: “The country is now a dangerous phase, and I said this two years ago.”
He recalled issuing a warning about Ahmadinejad to members of the powerful Expediency Council five years ago.
He added: “In 2008, gentlemen from that commission came to my office and said that I had problems with Mr Ahmadinejad. They were supporters of Ahmadinejad and wanted to resolve these problems.
“They asked me what my problem was. I sat down and for two and a half hours I recounted the problems of the past, the present, and the future, until they agreed that if they had known, they would have acted against him.
“Had they acted in accordance with my own viewpoints, we would not have experienced the evils of 2009.”
Rafsanjani said he taped that entire conversation, adding: “Everything that I said about future and was taped, happened.
“Ahmadinejad was head of a province during my presidency, he was my governor in Khoy, and was my district head in Makou, and I knew him, but his policy was to discredit and eliminate the revolutionary forces. Today we see that this is happening on a daily basis.”
He also refused to deny he would not be standing for president again in June, only saying: “I am not saying that I won’t.”
Rafsanjani is now head of the Expediency Discernment Council – a body created by Khomeini in 1988 whose 30 members are all nominated by the Supreme Leader.
It has the power to settle legal disagreements between the Iranian regime’s parliament (Majlis) and the Council of Guardians and also acts as a consultative organ that subjects its conclusions to the Supreme Leader.