On August 22, 2021, a new cabinet of ministers of the newly elected President Ibrahim Raisi was formed and announced in Iran.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that this government is truly historic.
So, for the first time in history, Iran has not only a president who is under US sanctions (moreover, "sanctioned" long before his election), but almost half of the government.
The president, under US sanctions, chose a cabinet to match.
There is even a minister in the new cabinet who received an Interpol red card for his "special services" and is still on the international wanted list.
Welcome to the new, free (from US approval) Iran!
But let's start in order.
From the first person - the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ibrahim Raisi and his "track record" in the US Treasury, which under the 45th US President Donald Trump was led by Steve Mnuchin.
It is the US Department of the Treasury that implements the strategy of the worst US war - the economic one.
It not only “prohibits leaving the country” or blocks bank accounts anywhere in the world, but also makes the authorized person or organization highly toxic to any transaction or operation, and this is perhaps the most serious significance of the restrictions.
Just by way of example, for supplying products from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to Iran (under US sanctions) in 2018, Canada arrested the CFO and daughter of Huawei founder Meng Wanzhou, who is still under investigation.
That is, even if the Iranian public figure says “yes, we don’t care about the American sanctions,” this, to put it mildly, is not at all the case.
For sanctions can be compared to a stone thrown into the water: circles from it hurt business partners, suppliers, governments of countries that did business with you and stop doing it, not wanting to enter into conflict with the United States, Interpol, the judicial system, etc. ...
So, back to President Raisi.
On November 4, 2019, he was added to the US Department of the Treasury's "Updated List of Special Purpose Citizens".
“RAISI, Ibrahim (aka Raisol-Sadati, Seyed Ibrahim, aka RAIS-O-SADAT, 12/14/1960, Mashhad, Iran) - for promoting the regime of internal and external oppression and promoting the radical program of Iran.
The second indictment by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury (OFAC) sounds even less gratifying, it is brought against Ibrahim Raisi “for his administrative oversight of the execution of persons who were minors at the time of the crime, as well as torture and other inhuman or degrading forms of punishment, including amputation. "
For domestic Iranian propaganda, listing US sanctions is like winning an Oscar.
For under the sanctions are the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, his son Mojtaba Khamenei and almost the entire top of the Iranian government.
What is left for the president in such a situation?
Choose a team to match, so as not to be a black sheep.
White crows in Tehran today are those who are not under sanctions.
Therefore
, Raisi appoints Mohammad Mohber as vice-president, who for the last 20 years has been the head of the Headquarters for the execution of the orders of the imam
, as well as the deputy director for commerce of the Mostazafan Foundation and the Setad Foundation (about the foundation itself below).
Mohber has been under US sanctions since January 13, 2021.
President Raisi has appointed Golyam Hossein Ismaily
, the speaker of the judiciary, as
his chief of staff
, who has told the world about new incarceration and death sentences.
Ismaily is under EU sanctions
: Europeans consider him responsible for human rights violations in Iranian prisons and on April 13, 2011 added him to the list of 32 Iranian officials whose accounts were frozen, and they themselves became "restricted to travel abroad."
A rather unique situation: the president of Iran, the vice president, the head of the presidential administration, the minister of defense, the minister of the interior, the minister of roads and even the minister of tourism are all under US sanctions!
August 21, 2021
of the year
Raisi, during a speech in parliament, when the procedure for approving the list of ministers of the new government was launched, said that he had no influence on the appointment of ministers.
“I was not influenced by any special group or faction,” Raisi said.
And he added that his government's plans are based on "justice and progress."
It is important to note here that if foreign policy decisions in Iran are carried out by the Supreme Leader Khamenei, and the IRGC exercises control over them, then in the domestic Iranian system, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) plays an important role in finding consensus.
The President of Iran is the head of the Supreme Council of National Security, therefore, the influence of the President on the choice and appointment of ministers is significant, although not final.
The key positions of the ministries - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and the Ministry of Internal Affairs - remain with the approval of the supreme leader.
And so we will start with them.
The Minister of Internal Affairs proposed the general of the IRGC, the predecessor of Qasem Soleimani as commander of Al-Quds, Ahmad Wahidi
, who was born in 1958 in Shiraz, near the former capital of the Persian empire, Persepolis.
In 1994, when Wahidi was in charge of Al-Quds, a bloody terrorist attack took place in the Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires (85 killed, hundreds injured).
The investigation found Vahidi guilty of organizing the terrorist attack and put him on the wanted list through Interpol.
For his second term in office, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had gone wild in the conflict with Khamenei, appointed Wahidi as defense minister.
During the two terms of Rouhani's presidency, Ahmad Wahidi went into the shadow of a member of the Expediency Council, and also headed the Center for Strategic Defense Studies, was a member of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations (where he probably coordinated the IRGC's international operations with Latin America, with which he has strong relations, and with other friendly IRGC states) and the Higher National Defense University.
Wahidi was not as strong in PR as Suleimani, and, apparently, was not as ambitious and vain as the latter, because Suleimani began to outshine even Khamenei.
And this ability to be in the shadows gave him the chance to go on stage again.
It is obvious that the appointment of Wahidi to a key position in the system of the internal power hierarchy testifies to the strengthening of the positions of not just the IRGC, but namely, Al-Quds and the Suleimani group.
But it is also clear that the
holder of the Interpol red card and the person wanted by the EU and the US on terrorism charges could only be confirmed by Ayatollah Khamenei
.
In principle, it is convenient: since Vahidi is not allowed to travel abroad, let him deal with internal affairs.
The post of Minister of Intelligence was given to Esmail Khatib, born in 1961.
Khatib worked for about 20 years alongside Raisi in the judicial system.
Esmail Khatib
© mardomsalari.ir
The official biography presented to parliament and the press mentions that Khatib comes from the Ministry of Information.
The state news agency IRNA broadcasts from parliament the course of the vote of confidence to the ministers proposed by Raisi: “MPs Qasr Shirin, Sarpo-e Zahab and Gilan-i-Garb stated that Mr. Khatib is a representative of the specialized forces of the Ministry of Intelligence and has the necessary knowledge of its structure, while at the same time being a true revolutionary and a veteran. "
However, some experts write that since 1980 Khatib served in the intelligence organization of the IRGC.
And this, as they say, is a big difference, because these two intelligence services are direct competitors.
Since Khatib did not give official comments on this matter, we dare to assume that, in one way or another, Esmail Khatib is a 100% personally loyal figure to Khamenei.
For a short time after the victory of the Islamic Revolution,
Ali Khamenei headed the IRGC, and in the period from 1981 to 1989, he simultaneously held the post of the Supreme Leader and the presidency.
Since the Ministry of Intelligence is a government ministry, in the 1980s, both the Ministry of Information and the IRGC (which Khamenei dealt with personally) were under Khamenei's jurisdiction.
Khatib held positions in the Office of the Supreme Leader, headed the Center for Protection and Information of the judicial system (this is the very secret "third intelligence" Khamenei, raised in the shadow of the judicial system).
And finally, since 2019, Khatib has headed the security service of the multibillion-dollar foundation of the spiritual leader Astan Quds Razavi.
The third most important post in the government, which is also unthinkable without the direct appointment and / or approval of the Supreme Leader, is the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Hossein Amir Abdollahiyan, born in 1964, became the head of the Foreign Ministry in the 13th government.
A graduate of the College of International Relations of the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the University of Tehran, he is nevertheless a creature of the IRGC and the past head of Al-Quds, Qasem Soleimani.
New Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahiyan
Gettyimages.ru
© Anadolu Agency
Hence his specialty in the Foreign Ministry: he headed the Special Directorate for Iraq, worked as the head of the department for the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, deputy minister for Arab and African affairs, Iranian ambassador to Bahrain.
Given the difficult relationship between the head of Al-Quds and former President Hassan Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Abdollahiyan, as a sign of his personal loyalty to Suleimani, left the Foreign Ministry for parliament, receiving the post of special adviser to the speaker there - first under Larijani, then under Galibaf.
We could see Abdollahiyan in Russia in February this year, when he, together with Galibaf and other hawks of the Iranian parliament, flew to Moscow, with which Suleimani had previously unofficially established ties.
Although we do not know that Abdollahiyan wore a keffiyeh (a checkered men's headscarf, popular in Arab countries, so beloved by Yasser Arafat) worn by Suleimani or Khamenei, we do know that he was the secretary general of the International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada.
In a word, the appointment of Abdollahiyan as the head of the Foreign Ministry can be accompanied by one word - waited.
And be glad, if you sympathized with General Soleimani, that his protégé finally became the head of the country's Foreign Ministry.
An extremely interesting story is taking shape with Suleimani - he seems to be absent with us, but he seems to be invisibly present in the form of the appointment of his candidates and the strengthening of his "party of power" in the new Raisi government.
New Defense Secretary Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani Takes On US-sanctioned
OFAC List
Decree No. 13876 in January 2020
- Trump's last salvo across Iran.
Some experts believe that his deputy, who must be from the IRGC, will have a more influential position; »USA.
Ashtiani from the team of the "martyr" Major General Ali Sayyad-Shirazi, who was killed in 1999 near his home in Tehran, then serving as deputy chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Iran's new defense minister, General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani
© Wikimedia Commons
Shirazi is a legendary personality among the Ksirov generals, during the Iran-Iraq war he was chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, personally led some major offensives and was the father of a whole generation of famous Ksirovites: among them Suleimani, and Ali Hijizade, the current commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces and the Air Force IRGC Iran, and Ahmad Wahidi, and many others.
Oil Minister Javad Ouji is in a "sanctions" relationship with the Secretary of Defense: the US Treasury Department included them in the list with one decree - # 13876.
Oudji is an oil and gas professional, previously held the positions of Deputy Oil Minister, Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company, as well as Iran Gas Development Engineering and subsidiaries of the Headquarters for the execution of the order of Imam Khomeini (Setad), namely, Mofid Economics Group Petro and Mofid Development Holding ...
Do not be confused by strange names - it is clear that Imam Khomeini, who died in 1989, no longer gives any orders;
this name is just a reference to the decree signed by the leader of the Islamic Revolution before his death, to create an organization dedicated to the management and sale of property "abandoned in the years of chaos after the Islamic Revolution of 1979" - that is, the property that the mullahs transferred into their ownership after the fall of the monarchy.
Today this organization, according to the Reuters investigation, is part of the business empire of the supreme leader of Iran and "was created as a conglomerate to accelerate the country's economic growth."
The US Treasury Department revered that the goals of the conglomerate were somewhat different, and imposed sanctions on Setad, and the multibillion-dollar Astan Quds Razavi (the fund that manages the Shrine of Imam Reza - a mosque in Mashhad), and Mostazafan, and other Islamic funds with impressive budgets - and along with all who controls these accelerators of the national Iranian economy.
And do not ask what relation the mosque, even if it is a brilliant shrine of Imam Reza, can have a controlling stake in the entire economy of the country - I do not understand anything about this.
And if you are very interested in this and you are eager for examples, the transparent economic activities of the Vatican will help you.
Mr. Raisi built his election campaign as a fighter against corruption, who came to the feast of the "aristocracy" (a word often used in his speeches) from the lower ranks of the Iranian poor people with the punishing sword of justice.
Therefore, during the procedure of the vote of confidence in his cabinet this Saturday, he once again resorted to a beautiful phrase: "Priority is given to meritocracy and opposition to those who have accumulated power and capital through favoritism."
However, many immediately noticed that in the choice of Ouji as oil minister, the figure of the new vice-president Mohammad Mohber, who for a long time was the manager of the same Setad fund, in whose subsidiaries Mr. Ouji worked, was noticeable.
But that's not why the US sanctioned Ouji.
And for the fact that he was the senior executive director of Sina Energy Development, which is part of another fund of the supreme leader and his business empire - Mostazafan.
It is for this that the entire Iranian Ministry of Oil was put on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) - specially designated global terrorists, which is even honorable in Iranian realities.
The
new Minister of Roads Rostam Gasemi is also under the sanctions of the EU and the United States
(at least at the time of writing the text there is no confirmation of information about his exclusion from the list of sanctions)
.
Gasemi, although he was included in the list of sanctions, is an example of a classic lucky man - he was born into a wealthy family of a businessman and politician, his father with the victory of the Islamic Revolution from 1980 to 1988 was the governor of Fars province.
Gasemi himself ran exclusively "grain" projects - he headed the billionaire construction concern Khatam al Anbiya from 2007 to 2011, under Ahmadinejad he was the oil minister (2011-2013), at the same time he headed OPEC (!), And in 2012 he occupied 57th line of the Forbes list in the "Most Influential People in the World" section and, most interestingly, was designated in it as a resident of Austria.
If, being on the list of EU and US sanctions, you can become a figurant in the Forbes list, the owner of the Austrian residency, and eight years later lead the “golden” Ministry of Roads with state orders in the Islamic Republic of Iran, then bless such sanctions!
Well, the last "sanctioned" of the new 13th government is the
Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage Seyed Ezatollah Zargami
.
He distinguished himself in 1979, taking hostages at the American embassy, then becoming the general of the IRGC, and from 2004 to 2014 he served as the head of the Islamic republic's television and radio broadcasting, that is, he was the main propaganda and censor throughout the entire Ahmadinejad period and even a little more.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.