Veteran politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, keen to reassert his weakened influence by healing Iran’s post-election rifts, may come under fire from hardliners again when he chairs a meeting of a top clerical body this week.

In recent months followers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have criticized Rafsanjani for failing to give Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei unswerving support in a struggle to crush an opposition movement galvanized by the disputed June vote.

The aftermath of the presidential election, which plunged the Islamic Republic into its worst internal crisis, is expected to be high on the agenda when the powerful Assembly of Experts meets on Tuesday.

“The spirit of dismissal, elimination, insult and slander, which amount to a fatal poison in the country, should be avoided,” Rafsanjani, 75, urged in a statement on Saturday.

The wily former president said the emphasis should be on “unity, commonalities and the guidelines of the Supreme Leader.”  IND: With all due respect, this may have been possible last June, but eight months of brutality, death, torture, and rape, inflicted on innocent people (some with videotaped proof!!!) leave little legitimacy for the supreme leader or his guidelines!

The 86-member assembly, which meets twice a year, supervises, appoints and in theory can sack the Supreme Leader — a never-tested prerogative which hardliners contest.

Its two-day closed session coincides with renewed pressure by the United States and its allies for new U.N. sanctions to deter Tehran from pursuing nuclear work they fear is aimed at making atomic bombs, not just fuel for power plants.