Video broadcast of Hashemi Rafsanjani about "pressure from security forces to disqualify him"; Heydar Moslehi retracts controversial statements

Reactions to the statements of Iran's former intelligence minister about how Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was disqualified from the 2013 presidential election took on new dimensions on Tuesday, June 15, after the release of an unreleased video of Hashemi Rafsanjani.

In this video, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the head of the Expediency Discernment Council at the time, attributes his “incompetence” in the presidential election to “pressure from security and military forces.” Hashemi says in the video that the Ministry of Intelligence knew that “more than 70 percent of the people in the first round” would vote for him, and therefore excluded him from the election scene.

Heydar Moslehi, who had explicitly stated in an interview two days ago that Hashemi Rafsanjani was rejected by the Guardian Council in 2013 based on his recommendation, claimed in a series of tweets on Tuesday that what he stated in this interview was part of his views "regarding the process of confirming qualifications in 2013, which was expressed incompletely."

Moslehi said in his television interview that the Ministry of Intelligence had predicted in 2013 that Rafsanjani would win the election, and for this reason, he appeared before the Guardian Council and asked the members of this body to disqualify Rafsanjani, considering the "costs and benefits" of confirming or disqualifying him.

In response to this news, Eshaq Jahangiri, the First Vice President of Iran, who was the head of Rafsanjani's election campaign in 2013, called on the Guardian Council in a series of tweets to release the video and audio of the meeting that Heydar Moslehi referred to.

Also, Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, then Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, wrote a letter to the Leader of the Islamic Republic on Monday, "appealing" to him.

Source: Voice of America