Bringing Mashai on Board?

Rooz online, Even as the chatter about the dismissal of Iran’s former foreign minister Manoutchehr Mottaki and the head of the country’s youth organization Mehrdad Bazrpash continue in political circles, a website close to the ruling principlists announced that Ahmadinejad had unexpectedly removed 14 of his advisors. The site wrote these aides were removed because of their “ineffectiveness” which has resulted in less pressure in the administration. But another website also close to the principlists wrote that the changes were with the goal of ensuring support for Mashai from the new comers.

At the same time, Mehdi Kalhor, one of the dismissed aides told Mehr news agency, “Yesterday, the decree thanking me and thirteen other presidential aides was issued, in which we were also thanked for our service, thus ending our cooperation with the president’s office as the president’s advisors.”

Kalhor named the following as the other advisors that were dismissed: Mojtaba Rahmandoost (advisor on veterans affairs), Dawood Danesh-Jaafari (senior advisor for economic affairs), Tavakoli Bina (advisor on trade and business issues), Etemadian (advisor on trade and business issues), Vaziri Hamani (advisor on oil and gas affairs), Susan Keshavarz (advisor on education and training), Setareh Vafai, Haj Ali Akbari (advisor on youth affairs), Mehdi Chamrran (advisor on councils), Royanian, Ali Montazeri, Ali Asqar Zarei (advisor on cultural issues), and Mehdi Mostafavi.

Some of these individuals had held other posts in Ahmadinejad’s administration and so this was a second dismissal for them.

Dawood Danesh Jaafari for example was the former minister of economic affairs while Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was the former minister of oil and Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari was the former head of the national youth organization. Mohammad Royanian used to be the head of the traffic organization and is the current chairman of a transportation board, and Mehdi Chamran is the head of Tehran’s municipality. Between 2007 and 2010 Mehdi Mostafavi was the head of the Islamic organization for communications. Abolfazl Tavakolinia and Mohammad-Reza Etemadian are the co-founders and leaders of the Motalefe party (i.e., Islamic Coalition Party) who during the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khatami were also the presidential advisors on trade and business affairs.

Kalhor said he had no explanation for the recent dismissals but some Principalist media reported that the removal of these aides was to streamline the government in favor of Rahim Mashai, who is perhaps the closest presidential advisor to Ahmadinejad.

A few weeks ago after Manoutchehr Mottaki was dismissed as the foreign minister of Iran, hardline Keyhan newspaper criticized the event and wrote, “several months earlier when Mr. president appointed some of his close associates, including Mr. Mashai, as special representatives for the Middle East, Africa, Asia, etc, Mr. Mottaki protested against the move who said that these were creating parallel duties in foreign affairs which would have a negative impact, but upon the orders of the leader who criticized parallelism in foreign affairs, the president rescinded his appointments and renamed his appointees as ‘advisors.’ But three days earlier, Mr. Esfandiar Rahim Mashai carried a special message from the president to King Abdollah of Jordan and since this act does not seem congruent with Mashai’s official duties as the president’s chief of staff and resembles that of a ‘special advisor,’ which may have brought forth Mr. Mottaki’s protests. ”

Another insider, Mansour Arzi, who is a prayer leader closely tied to the upper echelons of the regime, explained Mehrdad Bazrpoush’s dismissal to be because Bazrpoush participated in his prayer sessions, adding, “Some in the president’s office are striving to remove effective and Hezbollah elements from the government.”

This is of course not the first time that Ahmadinejad is embarking on firing his close associates. Raja News website close to Ahmadinejad recently published a list of 31 individuals who had been removed from Ahmadinejad’s cabinet.

It should be pointed out that the individuals recently dismissed had worked for Ahmadinejad at senior levels and some had even been members of his re-election campaign and had made pro-Ahmadinejad statements or taken positions to support him even before their last official posts in the government.