Iran’s fundamentalists were the big winners in last week’s parliamentary elections but the biggest victory of all went to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who managed the flow of support to those he trusts most and helped keep their rivals, the reformists, out of the race.

“Ayatollah Khamenei, thanks to his highest legal position and his sharpness, is the big winner of this ­election,” said one senior reformist who asked not to be named. “He provided timely and calculated guidance to his loyalists and clarified that he strongly ­disapproved of a reformist-dominated parliament.”