Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, left, during a session of Assembly of Experts in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013 (AP Photo)

Opinion: Iran and the Pro-Mullah Lobby’s Arguments

by Amir Taheri | Mar 13, 2015 | Opinion

Campaigning for a deal on the Iranian nuclear issue, the pro-mullah lobby in the West, especially in the United States, often cites three claims in support of President Barack Obama’s appeasement of Tehran. The first is that a deal will help the “reformist” wing of...

Media ID: 55315834
Caption:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, left, during a session of Assembly of Experts in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013 (AP Photo)

Opinion: The struggle to succeed Khamenei has already begun

by Amir Taheri | Oct 3, 2014 | Opinion

During his recent stay in New York, President Hassan Rouhani hosted a “private dinner” for a number of former US officials, oil executives, and lobbyists. According to several participants, Rouhani tried to pass on a simple message: If the US does not help him clinch...

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In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, President Hassan Rouhani (R) visits Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after his surgery in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, September 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader)

Ayatollah Khamenei undergoes surgery amid speculation over succession

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Sep 10, 2014 | Middle East

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei underwent prostate surgery on Monday, according to official reports. Although the operation was described as “routine,” and was reported to have been successfully completed in less than 30 minutes....

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In this Saturday, May 11, 2013 photo, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, waves to media, as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, while his daughter Fatemeh, smiles at second right, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Opinion: Rafsanjani on Saudi Arabia

by Abdulrahman Al-Rashed | May 4, 2014 | Opinion

Hashemi Rafsanjani is the most prominent veteran politician in Iran. But his experience has not made him so influential he can’t be touched: he was humiliated and harassed during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, when both his daughter and eldest son were...

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King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (C) and Iranian politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (L) enter the conference hall ahead of the opening ceremony of the three-day conference of interfaith dialogue with Christianity and Islam at the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 4, 2008. (Saudi Press Agency)

Opinion: Saudi Arabia and Iran—and Israel

by Ataollah Mohajerani | Dec 6, 2013 | Opinion

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is one of the very few Iranian political figures who have had good relations with Saudi Arabia’s leaders. In an interview with the Financial Times on November 26, he said that he was ready to travel to Riyadh and that he had been invited by...