…Mr. Larijani, a rival of the president, said the committee was told “to ensure that the defendants’ rights are reserved and that they are treated properly,” according to the semi-official Fars News Service, offering a not-too-subtle vote of no confidence in the president’s handling of events.  The announcement reflected another step by the president’s more pragmatic hard-line rivals to blunt his call for the arrest of reformist leaders and his demand that those on trial face the most extreme penalties. It also appeared part of a strategy by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to repair his own tarnished credibility with the clerical elite and the loss of his standing as a fair arbiter with the population, political analysts said.

Though the rival camp does not differ from the president on the fundamental direction of the state, it broke with him over the handling of the postelection crisis. The conservative-dominated Parliament has also assigned two committees of lawmakers to investigate accusations of torture and rape by government agents since the election. Mr. Ahmadinejad has sought to silence critics through arrests, trials and intimidation.

“I believe we are witnessing a move for reconciliation,” said Mustafa Alani, director of Security and Defense Studies at the Gulf Research Center in the United Arab Emirates. “I don’t think the reconciliation will include a review of the election or delegitimize Ahmadinejad. It will look at the torture accusation and it will basically smooth out the court procedure to remove all the hard-line accusations.”