TEHRAN: Iran s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani spoke out against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad s economic policies, on Friday, accusing him of fighting inflation with slogans and making excessive imports. The pragmatic Rafsanjani is one of the conservative president s main political rivals, but so far he had eschewed explicitly criticizing Ahmadinejad over the country s soaring inflation rate. Take this issue (inflation) very seriously... It should be dealt with using economic expertise and not with slogans and political games, Rafsanjani said in a sermon broadcast live on the state radio. His comments came five days after Ahmadinejad gave a televised interview to combat growing complaints about inflation, in which he blamed his political opponents and external factors rather than the government s performance. Avoid slogans and incorrect statistics and bring out realities, Rafsanjani said in his sermon for the prayers of the Islamic holiday of Eid Ghorban or Feast of the Sacrifice. Eid Al-Adha, which marks the end of the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, is called Eid Ghorban in Iran. Inflation - which reached 19.1 percent in the month to the end of November - has become a major political issue in Iran ahead of crucial March 14 parliamentary elections. Opponents have in past weeks stepped up their criticism of Ahmadinejad, accusing him of stoking inflation by pouring money into infrastructure projects promised on local trips and handing out generous loans to the poor. Rafsanjani loyalists are expected to join reformists and other moderates in a bid to challenge hardline allies of the president in the elections. Domestic political tensions have intensified considerably in recent weeks. Ahmadinejad came to power on promises of making ordinary people feel the benefits of the country s oil wealth. One of his government s measures to fight inflation has been increasing imports. But Rafsanjani warned against this policy, saying it had also been employed by the deposed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. When oil prices soared in the shah s time, he tried to satisfy people with plentiful imports. But this put production into hibernation, said Rafsanjani, who still heads two key institutional bodies. This was one of the main reasons for his defeat, he said, referring to the monarch s overthrow in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Rafsanjani, Iran s president from 1989 to 1997, was dubbed the commander of construction for seeking to revive the country s broken infrastructure after the eight-year Iran-Iraq war which ended in 1988. Meanwhile the deputy parliament speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, became the latest conservative to warn Ahmadinejad over the economy. The ninth government (Ahmadinejad s) is a government of action, but it must note that its actions should be reasonable and logical, Bahonar was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency. Its movement is currently populist. Bahonar also said that parliament planned to restrict access to the state stabilization fund which saves surpluses from oil export income for times of need. Instead of the stabilization fund, we intend to put the country s revenues in a special state bank account under the custodianship of government, the prominent Tehran MP said. Thus parliament, government and other bodies cannot borrow from the fund whenever they want. High withdrawals by Ahmadinejad s government from the fund - especially to fund low-interest loans and local construction projects - have also been frowned upon by critics. Agence France-Presse
