Hard-liners accuse top Iranian cleric of defiance

Sunday 19th July, 01:18 PM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

sharky1 at 09:48 PM JST - 19th July

Which side should we root for??? Go Iran!!!
goodDonkey at 11:01 AM JST - 20th July

I mentioned Rafsanjani a long time ago and said he was the key. He is scheduled, until 2016, to be head of the council that has the power to hire and fire the highest Ayatollah who is considered the leader. Let's just hope he can remain alive. The hardliners already arrested his daughter and held her a couple or three days. He was silent for awhile after that. Rafsanjani has a lot of support within Iran's top leadership. But it looks like it is possible that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may not play fair and use the Revolutionary guard to restrain the Pragmatic Conservatives, of which Rafsanjani is a member.

Many of those gathered wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs, crowding the former soccer field where prayers are held and spilling into nearby streets.

Who would have thought Iran would go green?

Now I know Rafsanjani is nothing like an ideal leader but the liberalization process needs to begin somewhere. He has expressed his willingness to have a better dialog with America and Israel. This is nothing new for him and the Pragmatic Conservatives. He is interested in relaxing laws for women and many other laws. I have never found him saying that Iran should give up its status as a theocracy. But let's face it President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s power is stalled right now and that is a good thing.