Room at the Top

This can hardly be bad news:

Opponents of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have assumed leadership of two of Iran’s top institutions, a shakeup that reflects Western economic pressure on Iran and could lead to a less confrontational foreign policy, particularly on the nuclear issue.

On Tuesday, Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatic former president who lost to Ahmadinejad in 2005 presidential elections, was elected head of the Assembly of Experts. Under Iran’s political system, the 86-member body of Shiite Muslim clerics appoints Iran’s supreme leader