Mr. KARIM SADJAPOUR (Analyst, International Crisis Group): They granted supervisory powers to the expediency council.
So all government macropolicy needs to be first discussed with the expediency council before it's carried out.
Another important development could affect the Expediency Council, the institution that has the final say on all legislation.
Fat chance: the Expediency Council is dominated by conservatives and, by November 28th, it too had turned the bill down.
ECONOMIST: How to fight a conservative establishment that always wins
Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric who heads the Expediency Council and Assembly of Experts, remains an influential figure in Iran.
Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric who heads the Expediency Council and Assembly of Experts, was president of Iran from 1989 to 1997.
Moussavi is a member of Iran's Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and the non-elected Guardian Council led by Ayatollah Khamenei.
However, getting rid of Mr Rafsanjani could prove almost as difficult as reducing the overall influence of the Guardians and the Expediency Council.
Should parliament challenge such a veto, then the Expediency Council, a large mixed body appointed by Iran's supreme leader, has the final say.
The most important of the bills went before another body, the Expediency Council, whose job is to mediate impartially in disputes between parliament and the Council of Guardians.
ECONOMIST: How to fight a conservative establishment that always wins
Under a complex system of legislative and religious checks and balances, deadlock between parliament and the Guardian Council is dealt with by the Expediency Council, at present chaired by Mr Rafsanjani.
In addition to Mousavi, two other challengers -- former parliament speaker Mahdi Karoudi, another reformist, and hardliner Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Expediency Council -- are hoping to unseat Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.
He was the speaker of parliament and Khomeini's right-hand man in the 1980s, president of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and is now chairman of the powerful Expediency Council, which resolves disputes between the clerical establishment and parliament.
Iran's Expediency and Discernment Council -- essentially an advisory board to the supreme leader that is chaired by Rafsanjani -- also stated that the allegations that Moussavi, Khatami and Rafsanjani conspired to fuel the post-election unrest are "essentially wrong and refutable, " the semi-official Iran Student Correspondent Association reported.
As the newly appointed head of one of Iran's all-important councils (the Council of Expediency), his influence is unlikely to die down.
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