Sometimes a kiss is more than just a kiss. The kiss in Tehran last Monday was certainly unique, as kisses go. During the inauguration ceremony to mark his "reelection," disputed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 52, bowed to religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 70, and attempted to grasp his hand to kiss it, but Khamenei turned away at the last minute. … The incident had the rest of the world puzzled, especially coming from Iran, this country of secretive codes and symbols, where everything has significance. How estranged are the supreme leader and the president?…
Ayatollah Mohajerani, 54, a man with a history of ties to the top echelon of power in Iran, … is familiar with the circle of power in Tehran and its secrets. … According to Mohajerani’s analysis, three figures are playing a special role in Iran today: … Hossein Ali Montazeri, 87, who is reverentially referred to as "Marja-e Taglid," or "Source of Imitation," Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 74, who is respectfully but somewhat suspiciously known as "Kuseh" ("Shark"), and Ali Khamenei, who Iranians have taken to calling "the Dictator." …
This is where the triumvirate stands today, the three men who embarked on their political careers together, intent on bringing an Islamic revolution to Tehran—and who could now be confronted by a new revolution. Montazeri is convinced that the concept of a theocracy has failed. He grants the religious leader, at most, the status of a constitutional monarch. Rafsanjani would probably like to see the basic structures of the velayat preserved, but with a "sensible" religious leader like himself, and with a liberal market economy similar to China’s. … Khamenei is fighting to preserve the status quo, and to do so, he could very well be prepared to throw Ahmadinejad, his awkward protegé and ideological ally, to the wolves. Access the full article>>
