Iran Focus
London, 9 Jan – Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian Resistance has expressed hope that the death of the former Iranian President, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, would lead to a downfall of the brutal dictatorship in Iran.
She said: “With the death of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the two pillars and keys to the equilibrium of the religious fascism ruling Iran has collapsed and the regime in its entirety is approaching overthrow.”
It is believed that his death will be a setback to the re-election campaign of current President Hassan Rouhani.
Rajavi, who leads the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), continued: “Rafsanjani, who had always been the regime’s number two, acted as its balancing factor and played a decisive role in its preservation. Now, the regime will lose its internal and external equilibrium.”
Rafsanjani, who died on Sunday, January 8, was President from 1989-1997; during the time, he also headed the Assembly of Experts (who nominate the supreme leader) and the Expediency Council (who advises the supreme leader).
He is occasionally portrayed as a moderate, due to his opposition of the “hardline” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; however, there are no real moderates within the Iranian Regime.
Moderates do not imprison or kill political opponents, nor do they help to organise a terrorist attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires which kills 85 people, nor do they pursue nuclear weapons.
The real reason for the criticism? Ahmadinejad had beaten Rafsanjani in the 2005 Presidential Race when Rafsanjani hoped to make a comeback.