FEARS that Islamic hardliners could exacerbate Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, scare foreign investors and worsen social tensions may pave the way for a comeback by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Humiliated by reformists in parliamentary polls in 2000 when he failed to gain a seat, the mid-ranking cleric has set his sights on presidential elections in mid-2005.
But Rafsanjani, 70, who has yet to declare he will run, must overcome stern opposition from reformists and hardliners alike, as well as deep public scepticism if he is to return to the job he held from 1989 to 1997. "The worse things go internationally and domestically for Iran over the next few months, the more that plays into Rafsanjani's hands,"said a senior political analyst in Tehran. "What he and his backers are saying is that he is the man for a crisis," said the analyst, who declined to be named. Conservatives are poised to take back the presidency in elections set for May or June as President Mohammad Khatami's eight-year reform experiment peters out amid public disillusionment with his failure to deliver promised improvements in political, economic and social freedoms. |