(On April 9, 2007, Iran declared that it has now developed...)
On April 9, 2007, Iran declared that it has now developed the capability to produce enriched uranium which is needed to make nuclear fuel on an industrial scale. This report describes Irans known nuclear sites listed in official International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports and includes a map with the location of the nuclear facilities. For further information and analysis of Irans nuclear programs, see CRS Report RS21592, Iran s Nuclear Program: Recent Developments, by Sharon Squassoni; and CRS Report RL32048, Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses, by Kenneth Katzman. This report will be updated as warranted.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was an influential Iranian politician, writer and one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic who was the fourth President of Iran from 3 August 1989 until 3 August 1997.
Background
Rafsanjani was born on 25 August 1934 in the village of Bahreman near the Persian city of Rafsanjan in Kerman Province, to a wealthy family of pistachio farmers. He had seven siblings. His father, Mirza Ali Hashemi Behramani, was one of Kerman's famous businessmen and a Pistachio merchant. His mother, Hajie Khanom Mahbibi Hashemi, died at the age of 90 on 21 December 1995. One of his brothers, Mohammad Hashemi is the former director of IRIB. Rafsanjani did not see himself as a peasant from childhood, according to family members.
Education
He left at the age of 14 to study theology in Qom. There he became acquainted with the ideas of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the most senior dissident cleric who later became the founder of the Islamic Republic, on the political rule of the clergy. He studied theology. His other teachers were Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi, Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani, Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari, Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi, Shahab al-Din Mar'ashi Najafi, Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, and Hussein-Ali Montazeri.
Career
He was involved in the "Devotees of Islam" agitation for nationalization of Iran's oil industry. After the demise of Premier Mussadiq's nationalist movement, Ayatollah Borujerdi, one of Rafsanjani's eminent mentors, prevailed upon clergy not to criticize politicians. During this period of quietism Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini had the greatest impact upon Rafsanjani's formal education, which resulted in his clerical recognition as hojatolislam, a rank just below an ayatollah.
With Borujerdi's death in 1961, Ayatollah Khomeini organized mass protests against the westernizing "White Revolution" of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. After the Shah's agents stormed the Qom Seminary and forced Khomeini into exile, Rafsanjani became a key operative link in Khomeini's underground resistance. Along the way, Rafsanjani's writings included two significant books that presaged subsequent thinking. The Story of Palestine angrily chronicles a "Black Record of Colonialism. " His 1967 biography of Amir Kabir admires the 19th-century Iranian prime minister's early conception of foreign policy non-alignment.
The Shah's agents suspiciously watched Rafsanjani and meted out periodic imprisonments, tortures, and even an illegal forced stint in military service. According to an official biography, his 1975 imprisonment resulted from his efforts to "correct the ideological thinking" of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq guerrilla organization, an organization Khomeini later condemned as hypocritically melding Marxism and Islam.
In early revolutionary phases Rafsanjani was Khomeini's clerical liaison to diverse dissident groups, including secular nationalists and communists. Rafsanjani later rationalized his collaboration with the Mujahedin as part of a strategy which "considered any form of struggle against SAVAK (the Shah's secret police) a blessing. " Rafsanjani's revolutionary credits include: organizer of local revolutionary Komitehs, crisis foreman of Abadan oil production, member of the secret Islamic Revolutionary Council, co-founder of the Islamic Republican Party, and deputy interior minister. In May 1979 he was nearly assassinated by the Furqun (Distinction), a shadowy group claiming pious opposition to clerics in government. Rafsanjani arguably sought to slow the momentum towards extremism. When the nationalists sought elections for a constitutional review assembly, Rafsanjani warned that they would regret the resulting "fistful of ignorant and fanatic fundamentalists" who will "do such damage. "
Rafsanjani subsequently was elected to the new Majlis (Islamic Consultative Assembly), which he presided over as parliamentary speaker for nearly a decade. In September 1980 Iraq's invasion of Iran energized hawkish sentiment, Rafsanjani included. As a populist Friday prayer leader in Tehran and as a Khomeini representative to the powerful Supreme Defense Council, Rafsanjani helped undermine remaining nationalist "doves" by advocating harsh retribution as Iran's war aim. Rafsanjani also backed a severe 1982 crackdown on the Mujahedin. Given Mujahedin assassinations of over 1, 200 regime leaders, Rafsanjani later explained that without the "imperative" execution of over 4, 000 Mujahedin guerrillas, "Iran would have become Lebanon. " Grave circumstances demanded "determined" means.
With militant opposition crushed and Iraq on the defensive, Speaker Rafsanjani deftly maneuvered amidst years of raucous Majlis bickering over the precise social, economic, and international implications of Islamic governance. Often enigmatically seeming to be all things to all sides, his calls for just wealth redistribution did not square neatly with his reassurances to business interests about the sanctity of private property. Yet Rafsanjani could also resourcefully break impasses, as with his 1986 theatrical use of television to intimidate "conservative" recalcitrants from "standing up" to vote against an emotion laden, yet long blocked, land reform bill.
Rafsanjani's most dangerous innovation was in foreign policy. Recognizing the severe costs of Iran's international pariah status, Rafsanjani sought to break Iran's isolation through openings to both eastern and western countries. Outraged purists leaked the arms dealings with the United States and Israel in what became known to the West as the "Iran-contra" affair. Yet Khomeini squelched recriminations with the admonition that "the path to hell is paved with discord. "
As the warfront deteriorated in 1988, Khomeini turned over personal command of all Iranian armed forces to Rafsanjani. Still the coalition builder, Rafsanjani ended the destructive rivalries among regular, ideological, and paramilitary forces by integrating them under one command. Following American pummeling of Iranian naval units and the shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner, Iran's radicals called for a river of American blood. But Rafsanjani and President Ali Khamenei quietly convinced Khomeini that the time had come to accept a "poisonous chalice" cease-fire. Rafsanjani's nationally broadcast sermon simply asserted that "the main issue is that we can stop making enemies without reason. "
After Khomeini's death in June 1989, Rafsanjani soon emerged as Iran's most powerful leader. He was a key architect of Ali Khamenei's swift selection to Khomeini's post as supreme spiritual guide. Policy differences between Khamenei and Rafsanjani were real, yet common bonds were much stronger. Khamenei supported Rafsanjani's presidential election, along with the simultaneous constitutional reforms that vastly strengthened the presidency's authority. Despite howls from the Majlis, Rafsanjani's cabinet excluded all prominent radicals.
As president, Rafsanjani continued the momentum towards pragmatic policies.
Events will reveal Rafsanjani's popularity with the masses. His relatively easygoing, often witty, Friday "prayer sermons" genuinely seemed to delight Tehran crowds, though grandiloquence at times undercut his pragmatic efforts. In May 1989, during services commemorating Jerusalem day, Rafsanjani opined that Palestinians could end Israeli repression if they killed five Americans for every martyred Palestinian. Official Iranian news sources quickly toned down such remarks as simply emphasizing that Israel's depredations would be impossible without American financing.
Overall, Rafsanjani's presidency was marked by increasingly candid and pragmatic rationales for recasting revolutionary principles in light of necessity. In November 1989 Rafsanjani delighted geographic neighbors with an unprecedented renunciation of Iran's historical policeman role for the Persian Gulf in favor of cooperative strategies. Soon thereafter Rafsanjani characterized Ayatollah Khomeini's death decree against author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy as a mere "expert" religious opinion. (However, many Shiites vowed to carry out the sentence. ) Such rationalization continued after Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Rafsanjani supported full compliance with international sanctions against Iraq, despite massive U. S. military involvement in the Gulf.
Rafsanjani was reelected to a second four-year term in June 1993, but only received 63. 2 percent of the vote with his opponent, Ahmad Tavakkoli, receiving 27 percent. Analysts said that the failure of Rafsanjani to win a landslide victory indicated that Iranians had lost confidence in the Islamic regime—particularly in regard to its handling of economic conditions.
Rafsanjani died on 8 January 2017, at 19:30 following a heart attack in Tajrish's Shohada-ye Tajrish Hospital in north Tehran, as reported by Iranian state-run media. He was 82 years old at the time of his death. The government announced three days of national mourning and a public holiday on his funeral day. Black banners were raised in Tehran and other cities and some posters showed the Supreme Leader and Rafsanjani together smiling. Five days of mourning also observed in the southern province of Kerman, where Ayatollah Rafsanjani's hometown of Rafsanjan is located.
(On April 9, 2007, Iran declared that it has now developed...)
Religion
Regarding the Mojahedin, Rafsanjani said (Ettela'at, 31 October 1981):
“God's law prescribes four punishments for them (the Mojahedin). 1-Kill them. 2-Hang them, 3-Cut off their hands and feet 4-Banish them. If we had killed two hundred of them right after the Revolution, their numbers would not have mounted this way. I repeat that according to the Quran, we are determined to destroy all [Mojahedin] who display enmity against Islam".
Politics
As a prominent revolutionary player, some observers perceived Rafsanjani as a mere opportunist who aligned himself with whichever directions the revolutionary winds blew. Others denounced his moderate appearances as sheepskin covering for a hard-line "wolf. " However, Rafsanjani is best understood as a principled pragmatist whose coalition and consensus building efforts help explain the continuing survival of the Islamic revolution.
In social policy Rafsanjani candidly advocated such reforms as liberalized laws on women's privileges. In defending pursuit of Western loans and private investments, Rafsanjani castigated "statists" and fanatics with "religious pretensions" for being "frozen in their beliefs … and unable to adjust themselves to the circumstances of the day. Dams cannot be built by slogans. "
Before Iranian Revolution, Rafsanjani was active in the anti-Shah activities and reportedly associated with the Islamic Coalition's shura-ye ruhaniyat (lit. Council of the Clergy) and the People's Mujahedin.
Although Rafsanjani was a member of the pragmatic-conservative Combatant Clergy Association, he had a close bond to the Executives of Construction Party and Moderation and Development Party. In 2009, Rafsanjani ceased activity in the Combatant Clergy Association, despite remaining a member.
He was regarded as flip-flopping between conservative and reformist camps since the election of Mohammad Khatami, supporting reformers in that election, but going back to the conservative camp in the 2000 parliamentary elections as a result of the reformist party severely criticizing and refusing to accept him as their candidate. Reformists, including Akbar Ganji, accused him of involvement in murdering dissidents and writers during his presidency. In the end, the major differences between the Kargozaran and the reformists party weakened both and eventually resulted in their loss at the presidential elections in 2005. However, Rafsanjani regained close ties with the reformers since he lost the 2005 presidential elections to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
According to him, the problem of having political party undertook by common sense and people. In other word Islam has not definite opinion on parties. Islam placed the duty of having party on the shoulders of peoples themselves. Islam has not any disagreement with partition. He believes that all parties before Islamic revolution in Iran controlled by Shah Regime and there was no original party in that time. In fact with victory of Islamic revolution, the existence of part becomes necessary for revolution.
Views
Quotations:
On 17 July 2009, Rafsanjani publicly addressed the election crisis, mass arrests and the issue of freedom of expression during Friday prayers. The prayers witnessed an extremely large crowd that resembled the Friday prayers early after the revolution. Supporters of both reformist and conservative parties took part in the event. During prayers, Rafsanjani argued the following:
"All of us the establishment, the security forces, police, parliament and even protestors should move within the framework of law. .. We should open the doors to debates. We should not keep so many people in prison. We should free them to take care of their families. . .. It is impossible to restore public confidence overnight, but we have to let everyone speak out. . .. We should have logical and brotherly discussions and our people will make their judgments. . .. We should let our media write within the framework of the law and we should not impose restrictions on them. . .. We should let our media even criticize us. Our security forces, our police and other organs have to guarantee such a climate for criticism. "
Membership
He was a member of the Combatant Clergy Association.
Connections
From his marriage to Effat Marashi in 1958, Rafsanjani had three sons: Mohsen, Mehdi, and Yasser, as well as two daughters, Fatemeh and Faezeh.
Only Faezeh Hashemi chose a political life, which led to her becoming a Majlis representative and then the publisher of the weekly newspaper Zan (meaning Woman in English), which was closed in February 1999.
In 2016, his daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, sparked a debate on religious persecution in Iran by visiting the female leader of the persecuted Bahai religious minority. The two women had met in prison, when Faezeh was serving a six-month sentence for "spreading propaganda against the system. " Another Rafsanjani's daughter, Fatemeh is President of Charity Foundation for Special Diseases and Mohsen was chairman of Tehran Metro Organization and now is vice president of Azad University. His wife, Effat is the granddaughter of Mohammed Kazem Yazdi.