Later in the article we find this:
It may also bear some similarity to realist tendencies of Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who last week enhanced the authority of his Expediency Council and its chairman, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to oversee the performance of Ahmedinejad's government, particularly in foreign policy. (emPHAsis added)

I think it's a deliberate fox-pass.