Will Rafsanjani’s death allow Rouhani to forge his own path?

TEHRAN, Iran — Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was one of the main stars in the political firmament of the Islamic Republic. Alongside Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Rafsanjani was one of the brains behind the Islamic Revolution of 1979. After the success of the revolution, he continued to be one of the main actors and, in recent years, among the main conductors of political developments in Iran.

After finishing his 1989-1997 tenure as president, Rafsanjani was treated unkindly, first by the Reformists and later by the Principlists. Yet Rafsanjani was still considered a major strategist of Iran's moderates. He played a prominent role in Iran's most recent presidential election in 2013. Rafsanjani, who did not enter the competition until the very last minute, created a massive wave in Iranian society by registering as a candidate for the 2013 vote, and after his shocking disqualification by the Guardian Council, was able to guide that very wave behind Hassan Rouhani and help get him elected as president.

Later, during a speech, Rafsanjani publicly stated that he was the reason Rouhani's share of votes increased from 3% to more than 50% in a single week. During his very last candidacy for office, in the February 2016 elections for the Assembly of Experts, he managed to gather more than 2 million votes and even surpassed Rouhani as the top candidate from Tehran.

Now, the Reformist movement in Iran has lost an important behind-the-scenes operator — an operator who had leaned closer to the Reformist movement since the controversial 2009 presidential elections and was thus considered the spiritual leader of the Reformists alongside former Reformist President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005). Additionally, Rafsanjani had been chairman of the Expediency Council since its formation. This assembly's most important role is to act as an advisory council for the supreme leader and to function as a mediator between the Guardian Council and parliament.