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Iran

Former president Rafsanjani loses key post

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanji, a bitter opponent of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has lost the key post of head of the powerful clerical body, the Assembly of Experts. State media said conservative ex-prime minister Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, aged 80, is the new head of the 86-member body which has the power to select and dismiss Iran's supreme leader.

Reuters/Raheb Homavandi
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Rafsanjani had held the post for the past four years but declined to make a fresh bid for it after Kani made clear his intention to run for the position.

Rafsanjani, who was president from 1989 to 1997, is considered a moderate and pragmatic conservative who has not concealed his dislike of Ahmadinejad who defeated him in the 2005 presidential election.

The animosity between the two men began after Rasfanjani indirectly offered support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi at the 2009 presidential poll. Gradually, Rafsanjani has distanced himself from the opposition in a move said to be due to increasing pressure from hardliners.

Despite losing the key regime post in the Assembly, he remains head of another key Islamic republic institution, the Expediency Council.

Mahdavi Kani was a follower of the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni, years before the 1979 revolution.

Before serving as acting prime minister in the early 80s, he spent a short time as interior minister.

He is currently chairman of Imam Sadaq university.

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