American Footprints

One ongoing question in Iranian politics is the relative power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and the IRGC. In an interview with RFE-RL, Mahmud Tehrani, Khamene’i’s nephew, supports the view that the Supreme Leader might not be so supreme:

“I think Khamenei — who is my uncle — is either a [...]

Much of the coverage has shifted to trials of reformist leaders and Ahmadinejad’s government, but it’s worth remembering that protests are continuing in Iran:

“Opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi has called for continued protests over Iran’s disputed June election, two days after MPs backed most of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s new government ministers.

“Musavi, remaining defiant over a [...]

After discussing the special relationship Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims with the Mahdi, the Hidden Imam who holds ultimate religious authority in Twelver Shi’ism,Mazyar Mokfi and Charles Recknagel raise an interesting point:

"All of this could be seen as religious and nonpolitical except for one thing: the Islamic republic already has a steward in the Mahdi’s [...]

As Juan Cole explains, Rafsanjani’s Friday prayer sermon was a paean to popular sovereignty in the Islamic Republic, in which he noted that even the Supreme Leader is indirectly elected by the people. It places him squarely in the reformist camp in a way he simply wasn’t before, endorsing not only their candidate as an [...]

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will lead Friday’s prayers in Tehran:

"The next flash point in the face-off is expected this Friday during prayers at Tehran University when Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential former president, will be leading them for the first time since the election a month ago.

"A strong supporter of defeated presidential candidate [...]

My trip back to the Midwest late last month broke my momentum in following Iran closely, and I’m only now starting to feel caught up enough so that my thoughts might be useful. Chief among those thoughts is the simple fact that the nature of the Supreme Leader’s office has changed, and perhaps with it, [...]