Iran: Rafsanjani Chooses A Side?

An Iranian activist summaries this statement from Hashemi Rafsanjani, posted on Rafsanjani's official website, to a group of university professors of political science:

Supreme Leader and Valayet-e-Faqih (clerical supremacy) is the best (system). Islam is the best religion. Islam and (the) Republic is best for Iran. When people spoke against him he was defending the rights of the people and the Supreme Leader.

Concerning (Mohammad) Yazdi (a staunch supporter of Ahmadinejad, who launched a scatching criticism of Rasanjani's ambiguity this week), he smells a conspiracy.



Our values and system can be a model for the whole world.

The activist bitterly assesses that Rafsanjani, following Ayatollah Khamenei's recent warning to "choose sides", has made his decision clear. I'm not so sure.

Rafsanjani, for all his vagueness, has always declared allegiance to the Iranian system and usually to the Supreme Leader. If there is significance in the statement, it may lay in Rafsanjani's challenge to Yazdi. Rafsanjani, given the recurrent threats to him and his family, is playing defence, but he may also be turning defence into offence by threatening revelations about Yazdi and his allies.

And those allies, of course, would be Ahmadinejad allies....