Several prominent Iranian conservative figures and hard-line newspapers offered sharp criticism on Saturday of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who delivered a speech on Friday that assailed the government’s handling of last month’s presidential election. Ayatollah Muhammad Yazdi, a conservative member of Iran’s Guardian Council, lashed out at Mr. Rafsanjani, saying the former president did not have the right to call for the release of arrested protesters. Ayatollah Yazdi also said that Mr. Rafsanjani had exaggerated the role of democracy in Islamic government, and thereby diminished the divine sanction of Iran’s government.“The vote of the people alone does not create legitimacy in government,” Ayatollah Yazdi said, in comments to the semi-official Fars news agency. In his Friday speech at Tehran University, which drew vast crowds and set off the largest opposition street demonstrations in weeks, Mr. Rafsanjani spoke at length about the central importance of democracy in Iran’s government and in Islam itself. Many in Iran believe that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory was achieved through fraud, but Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has blessed the results and sternly warned the protesters weeks ago to move on.Mr. Rafsanjani also said Friday that the authorities must recognize and address the doubts many Iranians have about the election. But Ayatollah Yazdi suggested that Mr. Rafsanjani had himself helped sprea… >>>
