[ad_1]
Iran on Monday sacked its top national security official, one of the country’s most powerful men, after he came under scrutiny for his ties to a high-ranking British spy.
The security official, Ali Shamkhani, has been the secretary of the Supreme National Council, which shapes Iran’s security and foreign policy, for ten years, and previously worked in the Ministry of Defense. The spy, Alireza Akbari, a dual British citizen, was Mr Shamkhani’s deputy in the ministry and later became his adviser on the council.
In 2019, because of suspicions about Mr. Akbari, Mr. Shamkhani pulled him back to Iran from England, where he had moved, which led to his arrest and execution in January.
Mr. Shamkhani appeared not only to have survived, but to have thrived after the scandal until he was ousted on Monday. In March, he led Iran’s negotiations to restore relations with Saudi Arabia, mediated by China, and was also a diplomat who traveled to neighboring Arab countries in the Persian Gulf to strengthen trade and political ties.
But on Monday, the Islamic Republic demonstrated once again that its most loyal servants are not immune from being ousted from power. In a decree, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, removed Mr. Shamkhani from his post and thanked him for his service. He replaced him with a senior naval commander of the Revolutionary Guard who had no civilian political experience.
Last June, Iran also removed the head of the Guard’s intelligence unit, Hossein Taeb, after a series of secret attacks and assassinations in Iran linked to Israel, saying that Iran’s intelligence circles had been compromised.
Iranian analysts said several controversies led to Mr. Shamkhani’s dismissal.
He has been accused of corruption amid allegations that his family earned millions of dollars through an oil shipping business that helped Iran evade sanctions. He has also been blamed for failing to negotiate a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.
The council has also been criticized for its handling of domestic unrest in a months-long uprising demanding the ouster of the ruling cleric, with the majority of Iranians seeing Mr Shamkhani as part of a crackdown that has killed hundreds of protesters – and with government supporters criticizing him. His leadership was not harsh enough.
In addition, the hardline faction that currently controls Parliament and the presidency sees him as too close to the previous government, which was centrist and reformist, to distrust him.
“There is pressure building on Mr. Khamenei from hardline factions and public opinion to remove Mr. Shamkhani,” Gheis Ghoreishi, a political analyst close to the government, said in a telephone interview from Iran. “They resisted for a while, but the lobby got really loud.”
In announcing the dismissal, Mr Khamenei said he had appointed Mr Shamkhani as a member of the Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader widely. The appointment was considered a public ceremony; in recent years, other officials who have broken with Mr. Khamenei, including former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have also been named to the council to save him.
Mr Shamkhani’s ability to weather the storm of spy scandals during his tenure may have been the result of an agreement between Mr Khamenei and Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, analysts said.
“There is a give-and-take deal between President Raisi’s government and the top leadership to allow Mr. Shamkhani to redeem his public position after the Akbari scandal with the Saudi deal,” political analyst Sasan Karimi said in an interview from Tehran.
In a separate decree on Friday, Mr. Khamenei gave the post of the Supreme National Council to General Ali Akbar Ahmadian, 62, a former deputy commander in chief of the Guard’s naval unit and a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. He is described by Iranian media as a top military strategist who is also responsible for coordinating the armed forces of the Guard.
Although Mr. Khamenei always has the final say on important state policies, from negotiations with the United States to domestic revolts against the ruling clerics, the role of national security adviser is influential, analysts say. General Ahmadian does not have much experience in foreign policy or domestic national security issues.
“Shamkhani’s replacement has no experience working with anyone outside the military,” said Ali Vaez, Iran director for the Crisis Group. “It’s a steep learning curve. There may be resets or delays on key issues such as the future of the nuclear deal, prisoner negotiations with the US and regional diplomacy.
[ad_2]
Source link