“The citizens of Iran will elect on Friday their seventh president – the third to serve under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khameni owes his job to Rafsanjani, who selected him to serve as supreme leader despite the fact that he was considered politically and religiously weak.

Rafsanjani kept the presidential post for himself, with the intent of concentrating all the powers in his office. But Khamenei had other plans: He joined forces with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and in June 1999 began to banish the Rafsanjani and Khatami camp from its centers of power, while exploiting the student riots. 

President Ahmadinejad’s election, which was supported by the Revolutionary Guard, was supposed to signal the end of the reformist era. But Ahmadinejad also proved that he wasn’t merely a “yes man” and began transferring powers to his own office. Khamenei did not appreciate this, and knew how to humiliate Ahmadinejad in public.”

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