Rafsanjani's Supposed Plans

Because of Abu Aardvark's commentary on the source, I'd take with a grain of saltreports of what a new Rafsanjani administration would look like in Iran. Ash-Sharq al-Awsat claims that he wants to support the Saudi peace plan with Israel and restore relations with the United States. The former represents a sharp break with previous Iranian policy, and I'd guess it's tied in with the latter, which is the more important goal. Oh, and by the way, he wants to completely overturn the current Iranian governing system of velayat-e faqih. That last might get a bit of attention if true, don't you think?

For now, I'm mostly interested in where this story originated and what, if anything, lies behind it.