TEHRAN, July 13 (UPI) -- Former Iranian President Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani is slated to deliver Friday prayers this week for the first time since the disputed June 12 elections.
Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei had led a series of fiery sermons during Friday prayers as the country grappled with mounting public dissent over the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In an unprecedented delivery of the Friday sermon at Tehran University in June, Khamenei expressed tacit support for Ahmadinejad while at the same time conceding to an examination of the allegations of fraud.
Rafsanjani heads the Assembly of Experts, the only body with the authority to unseat the supreme leader. A supporter of defeated candidate and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, Rafsanjani has said the turmoil in the wake of the elections shows sweeping dissatisfaction with the results.
The former president scored a major victory during the weekend when the Expediency Council, which he also chairs, ruled in favor of a law preventing government officials from holding elected office while serving on the Guardian Council, which oversees Iranian elections.
Rafsanjani, Mousavi and former President Mohammad Khatami have emerged as leaders of the opposition movement in Iran. Rafsanjani delivers the Friday sermon this week for the first time since the elections, state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports.
