Ahmadinejad's setback gives a boost to Rafsanjani

TEHRAN, Iran — Elder statesman Hashemi Rafsanjani, a mercurial cleric who has played both sides of Iran's reformist-conservative divide, is rising again as a key challenger to Iran's president after local elections show deep discontent with the president's hard line.

Last week's elections for local councils in towns and cities across Iran were seen as a referendum on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 18 months in office, and results so far were showing widespread victories for his opponents.

Since taking power, Ahmadinejad has escalated Iran's confrontation with the United States and the West on multiple fronts, in particular drawing the threat of U.N. sanctions for pushing ahead with uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear program. He has also sparked widespread international outrage for his comments against Israel and casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust.

On Wednesday, a leading newspaper that usually reflects the thinking of many in Iran's conservative clerical leadership said in a blistering editorial that the election results showed it was time for Ahmadinejad to moderate his tone and concentrate on improving the ailing economy.

"The election could be very instructive to those who have been in power," the Jomhuri Eslami editorial said. "Arrogance, disregarding people's economic situation, insulting respected people and high-flying policies were among the elements of the failure of those who could not imagine such a failure."

Ahmadinejad, who has not commented on Friday's elections, felt the heat personally during a speech Tuesday in the western town of Kermanshah. During his address, some in the crowd chanted, "unemployment, unemployment, unemployment is a major problem," the pro-government daily Keyhan reported.

The results showed a partial comeback for Iran's reformist movement, which was crushed over the past five years by hard-liners who drove them out of the local councils, parliament and the presidency. The reformers seek closer ties to the West — even the United States — and a loosening of the power of Iran's clerical rulers.

But the big winners were "moderate conservatives," who support the clerical regime but have become disillusioned by Ahmadinejad, saying he needlessly provokes the West, isolates Iran and ignores economic reform.

Many analysts were now predicting a coalition between reformers and moderate conservatives to oppose Ahmadinejad and his hard-line allies in parliament and presidential elections in 2009.