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  "authors": [
    "Karim Sadjadpour"
  ],
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  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
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Source: Getty

In The Media

Political Unrest May Widen Rifts Among Iran's Clerics

Iran's disputed presidential elections have revealed and accentuated rifts among the clerical leadership.

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By Karim Sadjadpour
Published on Jun 19, 2009
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Middle East

The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.

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Source: NewsHour

Iran's supreme leader defended the results of last week's disputed election Friday, and warned opposition supporters against further rallies. Karim Sadjadpour explains the rifts among the clerical leadership in Iran, "Khamenei and Rafsanjani, who are kind of two of the pillars of the revolution, are now neck and neck. And you have senior grand ayatollahs whose clerical standing is much higher than Khamenei's issuing a fatwa against the results of these elections, saying they were fraudulent. So certainly amongst the clerical elite, there's always been rifts behind the scenes, but what this election has accentuated these rifts."  

About the Author

Karim Sadjadpour

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on Iran and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.

    Recent Work

  • Q&A
    What’s Keeping the Iranian Regime in Power—for Now

      Aaron David Miller, Karim Sadjadpour, Robin Wright

  • Q&A
    How Washington and Tehran Are Assessing Their Next Steps

      Aaron David Miller, David Petraeus, Karim Sadjadpour

Karim Sadjadpour
Senior Fellow, Middle East Program
Karim Sadjadpour
Political ReformForeign PolicyMiddle EastIran

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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