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Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 14 - The
following is the final list of ministerial nominations presented by Iran’s new President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to
the Majlis (parliament) on Sunday.
The list includes 13 ministers-designate who have been officers and
officials in the Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated paramilitary
agencies.
At least five of the nominees have background in the notorious secret
police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and revolutionary
prosecutor’s offices, including the new cabinet’s two Shiite clerics, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ezhei and Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi. The
latter was Deputy Minister in charge of MOIS for a decade, while the former
was the chief representative of the judiciary in the MOIS for years.
The Majlis is scheduled to have a 40-hour debate
on the nominations, beginning next Sunday. It will then proceed to vote on
each nominee and is widely expected to approve all of them.
1. Minister of Foreign Affairs: Manouchehr
Mottaki, 52, chairman of parliamentary foreign
affairs committee, former Deputy Foreign Minister and ambassador to Turkey
and Japan, former liaison officer between Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC) and Foreign Ministry, former Vice-president of Islamic
Cultural and Communications Organisation, an
agency created by the Supreme Leader for export of Islamic revolution to
other parts of the Muslim world. Mottaki has been
hawkishly critical of Iran’s nuclear
negotiations with the West
2. Minister of Defence: Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, 49,
brigadier general in the Revolutionary Guards, joined IRGC when it was
formed in 1979, took part in bloody campaign to suppress Kurds in 1979 and
1980, commander of IRGC operations in Lebanon, Palestinian territories and
Persian Gulf states in 1980s, head of Military Industries Organisation
3. Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS): Hojjatol-Islam
Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhei, 49, Prosecutor and Judge of Special Tribunal for
Clergy, formerly Special Prosecutor in the Ministry of Intelligence and
Security, a founding official and member of staff selection board for MOIS
4. Minister of the Interior: Hojjatol-Islam
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi,
46, in charge of Special Department for Security and Intelligence in the
office of the Supreme Leader, former Deputy Minister of Intelligence and
Security, former Military Revolutionary Prosecutor
5. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance: Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, 52,
former deputy editor in chief of ultra-conservative daily Kayhan, former brigadier general in IRGC, former IRGC
commander of southern Iran,
former director of Political Bureau of IRGC (for 10 years)
6. Minister of Oil: Ali Saeedlou, 41,
long-time ally of Ahmadinejad in
ultra-conservative Abadgaran faction, former
deputy mayor of Tehran for finance and administration, replaced Ahmadinejad as interim mayor of Tehran after
presidential elections, former deputy director of Defence
Industries Organization affiliated to the Ministry of Defence,
former chief representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security
(secret police) in the Ministry of Commerce, former staff member of the
Supreme National Security Council
7. Minister of Commerce: Masoud Mir-Kazemi, 45, chairman of IRGC’s
Centre for Strategic Studies, chancellor of Shahed University
(set up exclusively for relatives of “martyrs” of the Islamic revolution),
former logistics commander in Revolutionary Guards
8. Minister of Agriculture: Mohammad-Reza Eskandari,
46, head of Wheat Self-sufficiency Programme, a
founding member of Jihad Sazandegi, affiliated to
the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
9. Minister of Justice: Jamal Karimi-Rad,
49, spokesman of the Judiciary, former revolutionary prosecutor in Zanjan and Qazvin provinces,
director of Taazirat Department (agency for
implementation of corporal punishment, including flogging in public, etc)
in Qazvin
10. Minister of Transportation: Mohammad Rahmati,
47, Minister of Roads and Transportation in Khatami’s
cabinet (the only incumbent in the new cabinet), former head of
Universities’ Jihad, a paramilitary organization affiliated to the
Revolutionary Guards that recruited Islamists in universities, a former
leadership member of Office for Strengthening of Unity (OSU), a key planner
of the Islamic Cultural Revolution in 1980, when all universities were
ransacked and shut down by Islamists in a bloody purge of dissident
students and academics.
11. Minister of Welfare and Social Security: Mehdi
Hashemi, 42, Deputy Mayor of Tehran
for districts, former commander in Revolutionary Guards, commander in
paramilitary Bassij of IRGC, former engineering
commander of State Security Forces
12. Minister of Industries and Mines: Ali-Reza Tahmasbi,
44, member of Majlis Research Centre, former
senior officer in Jihad Sazandegi, former head of
Jihad Sazandegi Research Centre, expert in
ballistic missile development, former Revolutionary Guards officer in Khatam-ol-Anbia garrison of IRGC
13. Minister of Science, Research and Technology: Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi, 51, hard-line
chairman of Kerman City Council, former professor of mathematics in the University
of Shahid
Bahonar
in Kerman
14. Minister of Labour and Social Affairs: Mohammad
Jahromi, 47, deputy chairman for executive
affairs of the ultra-conservative Guardian Council, founding member of IRGC
in Gilan and Mazandaran
provinces in 1979, governor of Zanjan, Lorestan and Semnan
provinces, former member of secretariat of the State Expediency Council
15. Minister of Energy: Parviz Fattah, 44,
former Deputy Commander of Special Division of Revolutionary Guards, former
board member of Revolutionary Guards’ Imam Hossein University
16: Minister of Housing and Urban Development: Mohammad Saeedi-Kia, 59, chairman of Urban Planning and
Development Corporation, former senior officer of Jihad Sazandegi
(branch of IRGC), former Minister of Transportation
17. Minister of Education: Ali Akbar Ash'ari, 52, editor of the daily Hamshahri,
which belongs to Tehran City Council (he was appointed by Ahmadinejad when the latter was mayor of Tehran),
former Deputy Minister of Islamic Guidance, former representative of
Ministry of Intelligence and Security (secret police) in the Ministry of
Education
18. Minister of Communications and Information Technology: Mohammad Soleymani, 51, former Deputy Minister of Science,
former chancellor of University of Science and Technology of Tehran (UST),
former head of Higher Electronic Research Centre, head of the
IRGC-affiliated War Committee in the Ministry of Science and in UST in the
1980s (Ahmadinejad studied, taught, and founded
the Islamic Association in UST)
19. Minister of Economy: Davoud Danesh-Jaafari, 51, chairman of Majlis
committee on economy and finance, a leading member of hard-line Islamist
faction, Abadgaran, in the Majlis,
former member of Central Command of Jihad Sazandegi
(a branch of Revolutionary Guards)
20. Minister of Health: Kamran Lankarani, youngest cabinet member at 40, radical Islamist
head of Namazi Hospital
in Shiraz,
former prosecutor in the investigative committee into medical malpractice
in Shiraz,
chairman of Islamic Association of Physicians in Fars Province
21. Minister of Cooperatives: Ali-Reza Ali-Ahmadi,
46, Ahmadinejad’s presidential campaign manager,
former leadership member of the Islamist student organization OSU, former
fellow-activist with Ahmadinejad in the Islamic
Student Association of University of Science and Technology, adviser to the
Supreme Council for Islamic Cultural Revolution (which conducted a bloody
purge of Iranian universities in the early 1980s), worked for some time in
Imam Hossein University of the IRGC
Last week, Ahmadinejad
appointed hard-liner Ali Larijani as Secretary of
Supreme National Security Council and put him in charge of nuclear policy. Larijani, an IRGC brigadier general and former Deputy
Minister of the now-defunct Ministry of Revolutionary Guards, will attend
cabinet meetings and is expected to play a key role in the new government. He
is a former director of state-run radio and television.
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