iran unfiltered

An arrest warrant has been issued for Mehdi Hashemi, son of Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is currently living in England.  The Revolutionary Guard mouthpiece Fars initially made this claim, but it has since been confirmed by Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi.  This is another sign that Rafsanjani's increasingly explicit pledges of allegiance to Leader Ali Khamenei have not discouraged the radical right faction from waging war against him.

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's seeming shift toward the government camp has not been enough to persuade it to stop its campaign of pressure against him and his family: a judiciary official has announced that the legal cases against his children Mehdi Hashemi and Faezeh Hashemi are still pending.

Hassan Taeb, the former commander of the Basij and now head of the expanded intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), has gone on a rampage of attacks and accusations targeted at Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mohammad Khatami in a speech today.  For example:

"In 2004 or 2005 we discovered a spy ring...that trained prostitutes to lead astray the ruling authorities.  One of the people in charge of this ring was Mehdi Hashemi, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani's son, who was immediately arrested.  But with his father's influence, some members of the intelligence ministry were transferred and Mehdi and the other members of the ring were freed."

From this tale, Taeb then makes a fantastical link to the election campaign:

"The prostitutes from that ring became active in Mousavi's campaign for the June 12 election."

His imagination doesn't stop there; he goes on to reveal the reformists' grand plan:

"The reformists' plan was for Mousavi to become president and Khatami to become Supreme Leader so they could read the system's last rites."

Perhaps Taeb's most telling remark, though, is that when he mentions the possibility of arresting opposition leaders (and claims there would be no repercussions were that to happen), he includes Rafsanjani's name along those of Mousavi, Khatami and Karroubi.  Numerous voices have called in recent months for the latter three to be arrested and charged, but this is the first time that someone has called for the arrest of Rafsanjani.  This would never happen - even as Taeb was making these remarks, Leader Ali Khamenei was warning the press not to attack prominent regime figures, at least partly a nod to Rafsanjani - but the fact that a senior IRGC official would even bring up the idea is noteworthy: it shows that Rafsanjani's recent withdrawal into the background has not decreased the hardline camp's desire to remove him completely from the scene.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced in a unilateral decision that his government will take over control of the Tehran metro system from the local government.  This looks like a strike at his conservative rival and Tehran mayor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf as well as at his main enemy Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose son Mehdi is currently in charge of the metro system.  Another major motive is that Ahmadinejad can presumably now hand over some if not all of the metro's projects to his friends in the Revolutionary Guards.