Word: reformist
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...also reveals a deeper truth about the showdown currently under way: Mousavi represents a faction of the regime (whose key figure is former President Hashemi Rafsanjani) that is vying for power with a rival faction led by Ahmadinejad. The opposition candidate is not even identified as a reformist, as such, but rather a pragmatic conservative who was backed by the reformists because he had a better chance of winning. As fierce as the power struggle within the regime may be, neither side can afford to bring the house down. And that suggests that Mousavi may be reluctant to lead...
Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei called for Iranians to unite behind the cleric-led ruling system despite rival demonstrations and street clashes between supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his reformist opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who says Ahmadinejad stole re-election...
...Reformist Leader Mohammad Ali Abtahi Arrested, June...
...democracy" that the ruling clerics have used to govern Iran for the last three decades. Khamenei himself is a former President. The job is important enough to have brought millions of Iranians to the polls on Friday, and thousands into the streets afterwards - both supporters of the apparent loser, reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and members of the radical volunteer paramilitary forces who support the reelected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (See pictures of Iran's controversial and violent election...
Despite clerical restrictions, the country's democratic institutions have been capable of surprising and rebuking the conservative mullahs - as occurred in 1997, when reformist Mohammed Khatami won the presidency by a landslide. But if Khatami's failed reformist tenure highlighted the limits of the power of Iran's presidency, the Supreme Leader has also traditionally sought consensus within the regime. While Khamenei has clearly favored those, like Ahmadinejad, who most closely reflect his own views, he has tried to protect the cohesion of the Islamic Republic's system by seeking to balance the influence of competing factions within its political...