A hardline ally of Iran’s supreme leader has been elected head of the country’s most influential clerical body as a power struggle rages in Tehran over the future leadership of the Islamic Republic.
In a blow to Iranian reformists and President Rouhani, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, 84, was appointed chairman of the assembly of experts, the committee that will appoint an eventual successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The decision comes amid fresh rumours about the wellbeing of Mr Khamenei, 75, who has no anointed heir and recently had surgery, another in a series of health scares for Iran’s most powerful man.
A former chief justice, Mr Yazdi is also in poor health. His appointment appears to be a stopgap, orchestrated by hardliners to block the candidacy of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the powerful former president who has designs on the top job.
Fearful that Mr Rafsanjani would use chairmanship of the assembly as a springboard to become supreme leader, the hardliners outflanked him.
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Iranian sources said that at a meeting on Sunday other clerics agreed to step aside and endorse Mr Yazdi to avoid splitting the vote. The ailing cleric then crushed the former president, securing 47 of 73 votes. Mr Rafsanjani was a distant second with 24.
The fight for control of the assembly, which appoints the supreme leader and nominally has the power to dismiss him, comes amid mounting concerns over Mr Khamenei’s health and renewed gossip about the succession.
Supreme leader since 1989, he has deliberately avoided naming a preferred heir. Rather than risk undermining his position as attention shifts to his successor, the wily cleric continues to play rival factions off against each other, maintaining his position as power-broker as they jockey for attention.
Mr Yazdi’s victory enables Mr Khamenei to again kick the issue down the road. That runs the risk, however, that a sudden illness could sweep him from power with the succession unresolved, plunging the regime into chaos.
Rumours that he has cancer have circled for years and he sparked panic among loyalists in 2013 when he disappeared from public view for over a month, missing several official duties. Last year he had prostate surgery and just last week another rumour surfaced that doctors had given him two years to live.
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Hardliners believe that Mr Rafsanjani was behind the latest gossip, in an attempt to force the issue of the succession on to the political agenda.
The former president is loathed by ultraconservatives who view him as corrupt and pro-western, while his influence among reformists is feared. Mr Yazdi himself has said: “I will not even want to go to Heaven if Rafsanjani goes there.”
Mr Rafsanjani’s endorsement was pivotal to President Rouhani’s landslide election victory two years ago, campaigning on a platform of political moderation and social reform.
Hardliners are terrified that an axis of Mr Rouhani as president and Mr Rafsanjani as supreme leader could fatally undermine them and permanently change Iran, leaving the Islamic Republic as a satellite of the west.