Tehran, August 13: Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami will lead this week’s Friday prayers after fear of clashes canceled sermon by Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.
Based on regulations, Ayatollah Rafsanjani, the Chairman of Expediency Council, was scheduled to lead this week’s Friday prayers but he reversed his decision to avoid ‘clashes’ at the event.
In a Monday statement, his office explained that the two-time president would not deliver the sermon this week “in order to prevent possible clashes”.
The statement came shortly after the head of the Policy-making Council for Friday prayers leaders Hujjatolislam Seyyed Reza Taqavi said Ayatollah Rafsanjani will not lead the prayers “in order to prevent any abuse of the Friday prayers occasion for unconventional and political reasons”.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani led the prayers on July 17 after eight weeks of absence. In his unprecedented sermon, the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts said that the ambiguities surrounding the June 12 presidential election had broken the Iranian nation’s trust in the establishment.
“Doubt has been cast,” he said. “There are two groups; one has no doubt and is moving ahead, while the other [group], that is not few in number, says it has doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt.”
In a fresh uproar to the election results, protesters took to the streets following his sermons despite earlier warnings by officials against any ‘unlawful gathering’.
Forty people were reportedly arrested in the protests that day.
—–Agencies