Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

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Ali Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni (2016)

Ali-Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni ( Persian علی‌اکبر هاشمى رفسنجانى, DMG ʿAlī-Akbar Hāšemī-ye Rafsanǧānī [ æˈliː ækʲˈbær hɔːʃeˈmiː ræfsænʤɔːˈniː ], also Rafsandjani ; Birth Nameاكبر هاشمى بهرمانى Akbar Hāschemi Bahramāni , DMG Akbar Hāšemī-ye Bahramānī ; born August 25, 1934 in Bahreman near the city of Rafsanjan ; died January 8, 2017 in Tehran ) was an Iranian ayatollah and entrepreneur who was president from 1989 to 1997. From September 4, 2007 to March 8, 2011, Rafsanjani was Chairman of the Expert Council and since then Chairman of the Arbitration Council .

Career

Rafsanjani, Ruhollah Chomeini and Mehdi Bāzargān , 1979

Rafsanjani received his religious training in Hodschatoleslam at the theological college in Qom from 1948 and was a student of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . During the reign of the then Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi several times in prison, he (like almost all of today's religious leadership cadre) played a leading role in the planning for the overthrow of the Shah and in this context also in the murder of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansur on January 22, 1965 involved.

Revolution and government phase

After the overthrow of the Shah, he was a member of the Revolutionary Council from 1979 to 1980 and President of the Iranian Parliament from 1980 to 1989 . During this time he was considered a “secret head of government” and the “second man in the state” after Khomeini. From 1988 to 1989 Rafsanjani was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and was instrumental in the adoption of UN Resolution 598 to end the Iraq-Iran war , after having had an insight into it as Minister of State in the early 1980s.

In the presidential elections on July 28, 1989 , he was elected President and appointed Ayatollah. He took up this post as the successor to Ali Khamene'i , who had surprisingly been elected leader of the revolution after the death of Khomeini . In this election, Rafsanjani significantly influenced the decision of the Expert Council in favor of Khamene'i. In the elections of June 11, 1993 he was confirmed in office. In the 1997 election , he was no longer allowed to run for two consecutive terms. During his reign, Iran signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13, 1993 , which came into force for Iran on December 3, 1997.

Defeat and strengthened return

Rafsanjani tried to succeed Mohammad Chātami in the 2005 presidential election . Rafsanjāni's son (his multi-billion dollar fortune was described as “stolen” by him in a national television debate in 2009 between presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahmoud Ahmadineschād ) told an American reporter before the election that if his father were elected, he would be the Iranian one Change the constitution and limit Chamene'i's power as chief legal scholar to the function of a ceremonial role, similar to the "King of England". In the runoff election on June 24, 2005, he was defeated by his opponent Mahmud Ahmadineschād. Immediately after this lost election, the revolutionary leader Khamene'i reappointed Rafsanjani as chairman of the Arbitration Council , a position Rafsanjani had held since 1989.

In 2006, Rafsanjani was able to celebrate an overwhelming election result for the electoral district of Tehran in the election to the Expert Council . After the death of Ayatollah Ali Meschkini , whom the revolutionary leader Khamene'i had appointed senior president of the council of experts, Rafsanjani was officially elected as its successor and chairman in September 2007 with 41 out of 76 votes. Both offices represented more power than the presidency. In the event of Khamene'i's death, Rafsanjani was temporarily considered to be the most promising candidate for his successor as supreme legal scholar. This changed with the role he played in the 2009 Iranian presidential election and subsequent protests . On February 8, 2011, he ruled out a new candidacy for his re-election as chairman of the Expert Council, provided that Ayatollah Mohammed Reza Mahdavi-Kani would run for it.

The Council of Guardians rejected a renewed candidacy for Rafsanjani in the 2013 presidential election .

Political positions

Rafsanjani was considered a pragmatist; For example, he met American and Israeli government officials during the Iraq-Iran war ( Iran-Contra affair ).

Atomic bomb and Israel

Rafsanjani caused a sensation worldwide with a statement on the occasion of al-Quds Day in Tehran on December 14, 2001:

“If one day, the Islamic world is also equipped with weapons like those that Israel possesses now, then the imperialists' strategy will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality. "

“Should one day the Islamic world also have weapons that Israel already has, then the strategy of the imperialists would come to a standstill because a single atomic bomb in Israel would destroy everything. However, this would only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational to consider such a possibility. "

In October 2005, during the Friday sermon in Tehran , Rafsanjani said :

"We have no problems with Jews and the highly valued Judaism as a book religion."

Also in 2005, Rafsanjani emphasized:

"We have always held Judaism in high esteem and never intended to question or attack the sovereignty of any other country."

On the other hand, Rafsanjani met with Hamas leader Chaled Meshal that same year and announced that Iran would continue its fundamentalist policy, quoting him as saying: "The days of the Zionists are numbered."

Nuclear dispute

In January 2006, Rafsanjani commented on the Iranian nuclear program as follows:

"'We cannot renounce our rights [...] We will defend our rights with wisdom and if we are faced with difficulties, they will regret it and Iran will emerge victorious." […] Rafsanjani underlined that [the] Iran would never misuse nuclear technology for military purposes. Tehran had already proven this during the war with Iraq (1980–1988). "

- Spiegel Online : Rafsanjani defends Iran's nuclear program

Women

When asked whether (Islamic) laws are not per se problematic for women, Rafsanjani said in June 2007:

"It turns out that these laws no longer fit into our time [...] Every country that wants to develop must not forego economic, political, social and cultural participation and activities of half of its population."

Syria

In connection with the Ghouta poison gas attacks , Rafsanjani commented on the civil war in Syria :

“God save the Syrian people. [...] It has been exposed to chemical weapons by its own government, now it is facing a foreign invasion. "

Controversy

Domestic politics

Rafsanjani is accused of being involved in the Mykonos attack and the chain killings. Akbar Ganji in a newspaper article in January 2000 accused Rafsanjani of responsibility for a total of 80 murders of dissidents and writers by the secret service during his reign as president. Ganji did not claim that Rafsanjani ordered these murders, but Rafsanjani must have known about them and was therefore politically responsible.

Foreign policy

On March 12, 2003, the Argentine judge Juan José Galeano issued an international arrest warrant for four Iranian diplomats and ministers for the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires . Criticism of investigating judge Galeano, having used pressure against 17 witnesses and accused, as well as allegations that are not based on evidence found in Argentina itself, but on information from the US and Israeli secret services , have so far not been resolved. On November 9, 2006, Argentina issued an international arrest warrant against Rafsanjani and eight other people for the attack on July 18, 1994 on the Amia Jewish community center in Buenos Aires , along with other senior Iranian politicians from the Security Council Aires should be responsible. Subsequently, Rafsanjani and other leaders of Iran entrusted Hezbollah with the attack. In November 2006, the Argentine authorities requested a red notice from Interpol against nine people, which in March 2007, after reviewing the documents, was reduced to six people. Contrary to the request, the Red Notices were not issued to Rafsanjani.

The opposition

Prior to the 2009 presidential election , Rafsanjani warned in a letter to revolutionary leader Seyyed Ali Khamene'i of election fraud and said: "Tomorrow may be the case." the release of the prisoners. He described the protests after the 2009 presidential election as a state crisis. One direction would just carry on as before, as if nothing had happened, but a “large group of smart people” would doubt the election result. "If people can no longer be seen and their voices are not there, then this government is not Islamic," said Rafsanjani. In its July 18, 2009 edition, the pro -government newspaper Kayhan accused Rafsanjani of “public support for criminals”. The state crisis described by Rafsanjani would be a conspiracy.

According to a cable dated July 23, 2009 published by WikiLeaks , Muhammad bin Zayid Al Nahyan described Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as a "survivor" (of the protests after the 2009 presidential election ) who would only act and take over the leadership of the state if he was one hundred percent safe that he would win.

Private

He became one of the richest men in the country after the Islamic Revolution. His fortune - over $ 1 billion by estimates - may have gone up. a. through the administration of foundations and an almost monopoly on certain agricultural products ( pistachios ). “Whoever cracks pistachios in the world,” wrote Rudolph Chimelli , “lets Rafsanjani earn some money”. His brother is Berkeley graduate Mohammad Hashemi Bahramani , who served as the face of the Islamic Republic for ten years as a newscaster and host of Iranian television and radio before being replaced by Ali Larijani .

His family clan - a son founded the Iranian airline Mahan Air in 1991 - has developed into an empire after Bahman Nirumand .

“His eldest son Mohsen builds the Tehran underground railway, his second son Mehdi does gas and oil business, his youngest son owns large grazing lands, breeds sheep, goats and horses, his two daughters Faezeh and Fatemeh are at home and abroad active in the real estate sector. "

On November 23, 2010, the Iranian judiciary issued an arrest warrant for Mehdi Hashemi. He is accused of fueling the protests after the 2009 presidential election. Mehdi Hashemi lived in Great Britain in 2010.

Grave in the Khomeini mausoleum

Rafsanjani died on January 8, 2017 in Tehran as a result of a heart attack. He was buried in the Khomeini mausoleum .

literature

  • Katajun Amirpur : The Depoliticization of Islam. Abdolkarīm Sorūš's thinking and impact in the Islamic Republic of Iran . Ergon-Verlag, Würzburg 2003, ISBN 3-89913-267-X .
  • Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. Translated from the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54374-X , (English original edition: London 2004), pp. 268–282, passim

See also

Web links

Commons : Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ munzinger.de Ali Akbar Rafsanjani (accessed on June 16, 2013)
  2. ↑ Analysis of Rafsanjani's resignation from the chairmanship of the Expert Council, in zenithonline.de
  3. ↑ Zeit.de 33/1985
  4. ↑ Swedish documentation about the election on YouTube (accessed June 16, 2013)
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Karim Sadjadpour: Reading Khamenei. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 2008. Page 27 (PDF; 2.4 MB)
  7. ↑ Iran: Ex-President Rafsanjani elected head of the Expert Council. In: Spiegel Online . September 4, 2007, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Iran: Rafsanjani is back. In: Zeit Online. September 5, 2007, accessed October 14, 2011 .
  9. ^ PressTV of February 8, 2011 Rafsanjani avoids chairmanship position
  10. ↑ spiegel.de May 21, 2013: Rafsanjani is not allowed to run for the Iran election
  11. ↑ Al-Quds Day
  12. ↑ IRAN: "Appropriate". In: Zeit Online. April 1, 2009, accessed September 6, 2009 .
  13. ↑ http://www.boell.de/assets/boell.de/images/download_de/presse/iran-report12_05.pdf Boell.de, Iran Report 12/2005 (accessed on February 25, 2014)
  14. ↑ “The days of the Zionists are numbered” , hagalil.com, December 7, 2005.
  15. ^ Spiegel Online: Rafsanjani defends Iran's nuclear program (January 11, 2006)
  16. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives:@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bielefeld.ihk.de
  17. ↑ zeit.de How are you, Great Satan? (accessed on September 13, 2013)
  18. ↑ Katajun Amirpur. Page 139
  19. ↑ Katajun Amirpur: Is there still a reform process in Iran? Parliament, 09/2004
  20. ↑ Iran Report (04/2003) ( Memento from July 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file, 256 KB; 262 kB) of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
  21. ↑ Saturday, September 18, 2004 Volume 115 No. 31.476 ( Memento from November 1, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ http://www.monde-diplomatique.de/pm/2007/03/09.mondeText.artikel,a0059.idx,25
  23. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6089788.stm
  24. ↑ CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION REPORT BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG 2006
  25. ↑ interpol.int ( Memento of October 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) INTERPOL Executive Committee takes decision on AMIA Red Notice dispute (accessed on September 13, 2013)
  26. ↑ Ulrich Ladurner: Is there a threat of civil war now? Die ZEIT online from June 18, 2009
  27. ↑ What is the impact of Rafsanjani's speech? , Tagesspiegel from July 18, 2009
  28. ↑ Rafsanjani attacks Iranian leadership on Reuters.com on July 17, 2009
  29. ↑ Iran's pro-government press attacks Rafsanjani after prayer Reuters.com on July 18, 2009
  30. ↑ http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/07/09ABUDHABI754.html ( Memento of December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ Rudolph Chimelli: The man in the windbreaker. In: NZZ Folio . 02/07.
  32. ↑ Iran Report (03/2005) ( Memento from July 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file, 187 KB; 190 kB) of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
  33. ↑ nzz.ch of November 23, 2010 Iran issues arrest warrant for son of Rafsanjani
  34. ↑ spiegel.de Iranian ex-President Rafsanjani is dead (as of January 8, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Rafsanjani, Ali Akbar Hāschemi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES علی‌اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی; Bahramani, Akbar Hashemi; اکبر هاشمی بهرمانی; Rafsandjani; Rafsanjani; Rafsanjani, Ali-Akbar Hashemi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian clergyman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Bahreman , Rafsanjan
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 2017
Place of death Tehran