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Hasan Sarbakhshian / AP file
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the founding figures of the Islamic Republic, incurred the anger of conservatives after backing opposition candidates in 2009 elections.
Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani arrived in Tehran late on Sunday, the Iran-based Fars news agency reported, having spent three years in the United Kingdom following his alleged involvement in the widespread protests that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mehdi Rafsanjani had spent several days in Dubai and had been expected to return to Iran on Sunday, an independent source told Reuters.
Analysts say his return indicates a deal has been agreed with authorities to resolve the charges he faces, and suggests his father's political fortunes may be reviving.
Akbar Rafsanjani played a central role in the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran last month, being photographed walking alongside Iran's most powerful authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sat next to U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon.
If the Rafsanjani family fortunes are changing, it may well have to do with his reputation as a business leader who could help boost the country's flagging economy, NBC News' Tehran bureau chief Ali Arouzi said.
Report: Iran commander warns of 'World War III'
As oil sanctions continue to bite and with a presidential election set for next year, some are tipping the pragmatic yet conservative Rafsanjani as a surprise candidate.
While they have faced persecution in recent years, the family is at the heart of the system and is reputed to be hugely wealthy, Arouzi said.
"Rafsanjani is a businessman first and foremost," he said. "He could be brought back in to the presidential arena (to) act as a go-between for the hardliners and reformists."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicates that Iran is running out of time to negotiate over its nuclear program. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
The Rafsanjanis have faced heightened pressure from hardliners since the 2009 vote, which set off the deepest political crisis and worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The former president is one of the founding figures of the Islamic Republic and a close aide to the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iran readies domestic Internet, blocks Google
But his backing of opposition candidates in 2009 and sympathy for opposition demonstrators incurred the anger of conservatives and led to a decline in his influence.
Mehdi Rafsanjani's reported return comes 24 hours after another member of the powerful and wealthy Rafsanjani family, his sister Faezeh, began a six-month jail sentence for "spreading anti-state propaganda."
At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.
Her conviction at the start of this year is believed to be over an interview she gave to an opposition news site in which she criticized human rights violations and economic policy in Iran.
NBC News' Ali Arouzi and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Let's not forget Neda Agha-Soltan!!
Clinton is such a horrible lying troll
thought of the day ---------- if Iran were to give up its nuke program or have it supervised by some agreed upon organization would the U.S. govt. make Israel open up its facilities to its nuke program and give them up as the likes of so. africa, libya, or would the U.S. flush the idea down the toilet?
You could sell lemons for oranges too!
MPEACH OBAMA !!
Who is Obama's REAL father?.................................Who is the REAL Obama?
Why has Obama failed to show his Real birth certificate? Who has been financing Obama? Why
hasn't he made his college transcripts public? Why does he want you to vote before this
information is acknowledged by the public?
www.ourcommunistcommanderinchief.com...........................Copy and Paste.......Watch
A full length movie with the TRUE facts. Watch before Obama has it banned from the public.
Rangewolf. I´m no great fan of Obama on some issues but your absurd speculations about the President is so much claptrap that has been resolved years ago.Please go to another site for freshman high school students that blah, blah,blah in adolescent fashion....
bart martin
If you don't watch this, you are just another anti American !!
Well, Rangewolf, if he's Anti-American, then I'm part of Norquist's Jewish Genociders, hell bent on killing all but my 144,000 divine chosen ones who are slated to become gods this year on December 21st!
CrimsonCujo
You have already been excused from this site. Go back to your room and take a long nap.
Your pea sized brain is filled up with way too much misinformation.
It is always amazing to hear the comments made by the "far right fringies". The conspiracy clowns and the "fringies" make for great entertainment and a good chuckle.
Get a life
These Mullah's manage to make distinctions between themselves (conservative Vs. liberal), but ultimately they are all the same money hungry immoral people. The same exact thing is going on between the Democrats and Republicans in our country, they all all cut from the same dirty cloth.
Why do we have to keep seeing this photo of an Iranian woman playing the guitar as part of the "daily life" in Iran.After months.it´s quite boring.Of course people have a daily life even under the most barbaric fascist brutal regime.I suppose you could have published a photo of a man as sipping his tea in Germany under Hitler. The U.S and much of the world is in a simliar deadly conflict with Iran.These photos trivialize that fact and are VERY boring.At least change the photo,maybe men playing dominoes..or women embroidering..
LOL
You're absolutely right, bart. The photo shop / photo swap / same photo different day thing has gone on long enough. It's not like readers aren't noticing this, NBC. We are!!! And have been for a long time.
Going back to Iran is probably not a real wise move. Anyone want to start a pool as to how long this guy remains free or even alive in Iran?
This poor guy will probably meet the same end as Saddam Hussein's relatives did when they went back to Iraq to 'make amends'. He will just disappear and his head will be found alongside some dusty road in the desert where he will be declared a 'suicide'. Iran is a dangerous place to be if you don't absolutely love the ayatollah and his band of scimitar wielding assassins.