Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Persian: اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی , Akbar Hāshemī Rafsanjānī pronunction (help·info), Hashemi Bahramani هاشمی بهرمانی, born 25 August 1934) is an influential Iranian politician and writer, who was the fourth president of Iran. He was the head of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 till 2011 when he decided not to nominate himself for the post. He is also the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran. During the Iran–Iraq War Rafsanjani was the de facto commander-in-chief of the Iranian military. Rafsanjani was elected chairman of the Iranian parliament in 1980 and served until 1989. Rafsanjani also served as president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. He played an important role in the choice of Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader. In 2005 he ran for a third term in office, placing first in the first round of elections but ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the run-off round of the 2005 election. Rafsanjani has been described as a centrist and a pragmatic conservative. He supports a free market position domestically, favoring privatization of state-owned industries, and a moderate position internationally, seeking to avoid conflict with the United States and the West. In 1997 during the Mykonos trial in Germany, it was declared that Hashemi Rafsanjani (the then president of Iran) alongside of Ayatollah Ali Khameni (supreme leader), Ali-Akbar Velayati (the then foreign minister) and Ali Fallahian (Intelligence Minister) has had role in assassination of Iran's opposition activists in Europe. He is considered to be the richest person in Iran. On 11 May 2013, Rafsanjani entered the race for the June 2013 presidential election, but on 21 May he was disqualified by the Guardian Council.