SOURCES CLAIM RAFSANJANI, HASSAN KHOMEINI, AND

S E C R E T BAKU 000762 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/25/2009 TAGS: PGOV KISL AJ IR SUBJECT: SOURCES CLAIM RAFSANJANI, HASSAN KHOMEINI, AND KHAMEINI MET BEFORE EID - OR DIDN'T REF: A. A) BAKU 759 ¶B. B) BAKU 695 Classified By: POLECON COUNSELOR ROB GARVERICK, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (S) Citing Rafsanjani family sources (which he refused to name),Hooshang, a University of Tehran Sociology professor and Iranian politics researcher told Baku Iran Watcher on September 23 that Ayatollah Rafsanjani and Hassan Khomeini (a grandson of the Ayatollah) met with Supreme Leader Khameini at his request sometime during the week of September 14 (possibly after Qods Day). According to Hooshang (who arrived in Baku from Tehran on September 18, and is now en route to deliver papers at several conferences in the United States),the purpose of the meeting three was to seek "a political solution suitable for THEM" (his emphasis). He said that one upshot of this meeting was the attendance of Rafsanjani, Karroubi, and some other insider "oppositionists" at Khameini's September 20 Eid al-Fitr sermon. ¶2. (S) Hooshang cited this alleged development, and the conciliatory aspects of Khameini's September 20 Eid sermon, as evidence that Khameini is attempting to extricate himself from blame for the election issue in the mind of senior clerics. Nonetheless, Hooshang expressed skepticism that Khameini still retains enough political maneuvering room to reach a compromise that will exculpate him from his earlier political actions, and/or be acceptable to all sides. (Note and Comment: The question of whether some kind of tri-partite contact occurred is still confused. Other sources claim that there was no pre-Eid meeting, but that telephone calls were exchanged among the three. Ali Khomeini told yet another source on September 16 that (up to that time) no contact between the three individuals had recently occurred (ref b). End Note and Comment). ¶3. (S) Hooshang claims to have established a considerable network of contacts associated with Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, and was the source of comments on this figure related in ref (b). He provided new details on Mesbah-Yazdi's alleged network, and his analysis of "successful" opposition protests on Quds Day, septels. LU