Rafsanjani Family Reenters Iran Debate Amid U.S.-Iran Negotiations

Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, son of former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has drawn attention after suggesting Tehran could make a temporary arrangement with President Donald Trump while waiting for a future U.S. administration.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

The family of former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has returned to public discussion in Iran as Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of his sons, offered a strategy for how the Islamic Republic could survive U.S. military and diplomatic pressure during President Donald Trump’s current term, according to a new report.

Before his death in 2017, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was one of the most powerful and wealthy figures in the Islamic Republic. His children retained political, business and institutional influence after his death, though the family has been marginalized at various points amid internal power struggles.

Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani reentered the news cycle after giving an interview in which he argued that Iran should make an arrangement with Trump for the remaining years of his presidency. He described Trump as a “raging bull” and suggested Tehran should help him out of what he called the “swamp” Trump had placed himself in, limit further damage to Iran, and later reconsider the arrangement once a different administration takes power in Washington.

Rafsanjani’s argument was that Iran could sign an agreement now, survive immediate pressure and later argue that the agreement was accepted under unjustified pressure. He justified the position by pointing to Trump’s earlier withdrawal from a prior agreement and suggesting Iran could act similarly.

Critics of the Rafsanjani family say Mohsen Hashemi’s comments reflect a long-standing approach associated with his father: presenting the family as pragmatic and moderate while remaining committed to the Islamic Republic’s broader goals.

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani served as speaker of Iran’s Majles from 1980 to 1989, president from 1989 to 1997, chairman of the Assembly of Experts from 2006 to 2011, and chairman of the Expediency Council from 1989 until his death. He was also one of the senior figures who helped elevate Ali Khamenei to supreme leader after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Rafsanjani was born in 1934 to a family of wealthy pistachio farmers in Bahraman, near Rafsanjan in Kerman Province. His original surname was Bahrami. He moved to Qom at a young age to study under Khomeini and became active in the Islamic revolutionary movement during the 1960s as a member of the Islamic Coalition Party, known as Motalefeh.

Khomeini appointed Rafsanjani to the Islamic Revolutionary Council in 1979 after taking power, and Rafsanjani remained a central figure in the system for decades.

Rafsanjani’s critics have pointed to several of his statements and policies. He once suggested that Israel could be annihilated with a single nuclear bomb. He also acknowledged thinking about developing nuclear weapons during the 1980s. In a 1998 speech, he denied that the Holocaust had occurred and claimed Israelis were worse than Hitler. After becoming president in 1989, he ordered intelligence chief Ali Fallahian to begin a campaign targeting dissidents abroad, according to critics. He was also wanted by Argentine authorities in connection with the 1994 AMIA bombing.

Rafsanjani positioned himself as the leading figure among the so-called “pragmatist” faction inside the Islamic Republic. He argued that Tehran could expand its influence by making selective deals with the West while using Western corporations and economic interests to soften foreign governments’ positions toward Iran.

That approach appeared during the Iran-Contra affair in 1985 and 1986. With Khomeini’s knowledge and approval, Rafsanjani and his allies presented themselves as moderates opposed to the ayatollah’s hardline rule while seeking U.S. weapons during the Iran-Iraq War in exchange for promises related to hostages held in Lebanon by Hezbollah.

In his book “Nest of Spies,” journalist Amir Taheri wrote that Rafsanjani once traveled to the United States using his birth name, Bahrami, and that American interlocutors did not realize who he was.

Rafsanjani’s policies fit the needs of postwar Iran. By 1989, the country was economically devastated after years of war and internal turmoil. Foreign investment and loans from Europe poured into Iran, while major multinational corporations sought contracts. European governments opened a “critical dialogue” with Tehran in 1992, even as dissident killings continued. During that period, critics say pro-Tehran lobbying also began expanding in the United States with help from business interests.

Rafsanjani was also widely accused of using his political position to enrich himself and his family. His alleged business empire extended beyond Iran, including claims involving Romanian gold, hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign banks, a Canadian private road and shopping center, and assets in Dubai and Venezuela. Forbes Magazine reported on some of those dealings in 2003 in an article titled “Millionaire Mullahs.” A partial list of his holdings in Iran was later released by rivals to Fars News in 2009.

Rafsanjani remained ambitious into the 2000s and was frequently rumored to be positioning himself as a possible successor to Khamenei. Some within Khamenei’s camp reportedly feared he was planning to remove Khamenei through internal maneuvering.

The political landscape later shifted. Reformists gathered much of the support for a softer foreign policy, while so-called principlists aligned with Khamenei favored military and ideological confrontation.

Rafsanjani tried to reshape his public image by supporting the 2009 Green Movement, which formed after the disputed presidential election defeat of former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. His daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani spent six months in prison for participating in protests.

Many Iranians remained skeptical of Rafsanjani’s repositioning, viewing it as political calculation rather than genuine opposition.

Khamenei removed Rafsanjani from some official posts, but Rafsanjani’s wealth and networks kept him influential. Hassan Rouhani’s 2013 presidential victory was widely viewed as having been partly engineered by Rafsanjani, as was the 2016 Assembly of Experts election. Rafsanjani also reportedly said privately that making Khamenei supreme leader had been a mistake.

Rafsanjani died on Jan. 8, 2017, at age 82. Officials said he suffered a heart attack while swimming. His death immediately sparked speculation that he may have been killed by rivals. Khamenei fueled some of that speculation by omitting certain prayer formulas at Rafsanjani’s funeral, according to critics.

Later that year, Rafsanjani’s children said an examination found that he had 10 times the normal amount of radioactivity in his body. Rouhani ordered an investigation in January 2018, but the inquiry was led by Ali Shamkhani, then secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and a Khamenei ally. The investigation found that Rafsanjani died of natural causes.

Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani later commented that solving the case would require “Miss Marple.”

In later years, more details were raised by Rafsanjani’s children. In 2019, his daughter Fatemeh told Etemad that two unknown men had warned her a month before his death that her father’s life was in danger because of his ambition to succeed Khamenei. Fatemeh and Faezeh later cited several suspicious circumstances, including delays in getting him to a hospital, lack of access to CCTV footage from the swimming pool and his office, no post-mortem examination despite family requests, a rushed burial, and the disappearance of confidential documents, including diaries and his last will and testament, from his office safe after his death.

Former Revolutionary Guards commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi appeared to reference the suspicion in October 2025, when he posted, “I do not wish to die in bed or in a swimming pool.”

Rafsanjani had five children: Fatemeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, born in 1960; Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, born in 1961; Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, born in 1963; Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, born in 1969; and Yasser Hashemi Rafsanjani, born in 1971. All were placed in influential positions within Iran’s political, business or institutional networks.

Fatemeh Hashemi Rafsanjani has generally kept a lower international profile than Faezeh, but she remains active in politics and public life. She is a member of the Moderation and Development Party, has led the Charity Foundation for Special Diseases, and has served as secretary-general of the Women’s Solidarity Association of Iran.

Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani served as chief executive of the Tehran Metro from 1998 to 2011, deputy director of Islamic Azad University from 2013 to 2017, and chairman of the Tehran City Council from 2017 to 2021. He unsuccessfully challenged Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf for Tehran’s mayoralty. He was also an executive at several companies linked to his father. A 2024 investigation into Dubai property holdings reported that he owns a $380,000 apartment there and that his son owns another unit worth $100,000.

Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani became associated with the reformist movement in 1997 and later with the Green Movement in 2009. She has been arrested multiple times and served several short prison sentences. Critics say her family status resulted in more lenient treatment than other Iranians charged with similar offenses. She has sought to present herself as a women’s rights advocate, a position that earned international attention, including from the Biden State Department in 2024, though many Iranians criticized the recognition because of the family’s history.

The Western portrayal of the Rafsanjani daughters as reformist or feminist figures dates back decades. In 1997, Elaine Sciolino profiled Fatemeh and Faezeh Hashemi in The New York Times under the headline “The Chanel Under the Chador,” portraying them as elite women working within an Islamic women’s agenda while noting their wealth, international connections and privilege.

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani pursued a business career marked by corruption allegations involving foreign contractors. A Norwegian court accused him of accepting a $15.2 million bribe from Statoil in 2002, and French jurists raised evidence that he accepted $80 million from Total in 1997. Iranians investigating the Rafsanjanis were reportedly arrested and tortured. In 2009, after Rafsanjani turned against Khamenei, Mehdi was charged with embezzling $2 million from the Iranian Fuel Conservation Program and fled to the United Kingdom. He returned to Iran in 2012, was arrested and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption in 2015. He was paroled in 2023.

Yasser Hashemi Rafsanjani went into business and was also accused of corruption. Forbes reported in 2003 that he owned a 30-acre horse farm in the Lavasan area north of Tehran, where land was highly valuable, and that he ran an export-import firm involving baby food, bottled water and industrial machinery. The 2024 Dubai investigation reported that he owned two luxury apartments valued at $1.45 million.

The family’s renewed visibility comes as the Islamic Republic faces one of the most serious crises in its history. Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani’s recent comments have raised questions about whether the family believes it can replay Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s strategy from the 1980s and 1990s: engage the West tactically, secure relief, preserve the system and wait for more favorable conditions.

Critics argue that although the Rafsanjani family may have personal grievances against Iran’s current rulers, its members still have strong incentives to preserve the Islamic Republic. If the regime were replaced by a government accountable to the Iranian people, the wealth of current and former officials could face investigation, and assets acquired through corruption, privilege or abuse of power could be subject to recovery.

The Rafsanjanis’ critics say that is the lens through which many Iranians view the recent statements and actions of Mohsen, Faezeh and Fatemeh.

The full report on the Rafsanjani family’s attempt to return to public influence in Iran can be read here.