Ministry of Defense 2005 = Interior Ministry 2009
Sep 13th, 2009 by pedestrian
You may now know that the interior ministry has been taken over by Mostafa Najjar, the former minister of defense and a top ranking official over in the Sepah. For nearly two decades he oversaw the SASED company – the arms producing branch of the Ministry of Defense.
But what you didn’t know is that his unveiling would be just the beginning to a slew of new shuffles between the ministry of defense and the ministry of the interior.
Via Tabnak:
Important Administrative Shuffles at the Interior Ministry
Ershad Manesh, the chief engineering officer of the ministry of defense in the ninth cabinet is now a top deputy at the interior ministry.
Fathollahi, Ahmadinejad’s security adviser will replace Kamran Daneshjoo (who was head of the election headquarters for the June 12th election) at the interior ministry.
Kabiri, another top deputy at the ministry of defense will be transferred to the interior ministry.
I should add … shuffles are very common in the Iranian government. You shouldn’t raise an eyebrow if you hear that the minister of health becomes the minister of education or even finance minister. The same people have been continuously shuffled and thrown around for the past 30 years. But if possible, I’d like to take a look back and see whether shuffles of this kind – defense to interior – have indeed been this common.
“I should add … shuffles are very common in the Iranian government. You shouldn’t raise an eyebrow if you hear that the minister of health becomes the minister of education or even finance minister.”
I would take it even further and say that the same kind of thing happened during the Shah’s time. In a sense, it’s a copy of the British system where personal qualifications have very little do to with cabinet postings. The only requirement is a “public school” and Oxbridge education. By contrast, I would imagine people would be up in arms in places like Canada or the US if, for example, a school chum now general was given the Dept. of Education to run. Not that it never happens, though (Bush and the FEMA head, for one). The difference between now and the Shah’s time is that these aren’t “aristocrats” taking up cabinet posts but what those aristocrats might have called “arazel va awbash.”
supp, I just keep wondering: has this much military presence in the interior ministry been common in the past three decades? From what I remember, it hasn’t, but I could be wrong.
Could be a new thing. I don’t know for sure. I have read lots of speculation about the proposed dissolution of the Interior Ministry or its folding into the Guard’s intelligence service. But that’s easier said than done.
supp, you’re right to point that out. My family happened to be influential in the court of Reza Shah. (Keep in mind, Reza Shah was a military figure that seized command as head-of-state.) My great-grandfather served in a variety of ministries, including health, education and welfare. My grandfather (his son-in-law) actually served a dual post, in education and health. Both of their credentials were academic; one in what today could be regarded Iranian liberal arts, the other a Western trained physicist. It should also be pointed out that, at various times, their effective leadership exceeded their politically appointed capacities. For example, upon his political “retirement”, my great-grandfather went on to serve as private tutor to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Perhaps the greatest example of this came about during the onset of the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, where my grandfather (a mere minister) assumed effective authority over all of Tehran due to the fact that the entire remaining political establishment, including all high ranking military commanders, panicked and fled into hiding. (Sad but true.)
I might add, supp, that my family were not “aristocrats” in any traditional meaning of the word. True, my grandfather, aunts and uncles were all recipients of higher, Western learning. But the family was not even considered an element of Iran’s economic elite. The fact that their only qualifications were academic, makes them better described as bureaucrats. (They were also dedicated secularists.)
ped, the positioning of IRGC personnel (retired and active) into the workings of the IRI government is part of a trend that has become most obvious during the presidential tenure of Ahmadinejad. Some Western observers have compared it to similar conditions prevalent in Egypt and Pakistan. One has even compared it to the governmental workings of pre-World War II Japan. Something to keep in mind is that the now dominant political establishment in the IRI actually sees itself under threat, both physically and culturally, from the West. So militarization can at best be understood as something of a natural consequence. In light of this, the legitimacy of this IRI narrative will be put to the test upon any rendering of the upcoming US-Iran talks.
Pirouz, I wonder quite a bit about what you said: “now dominant political establishment in the IRI actually sees itself under threat, both physically and culturally, from the West”
b/c I’m not so convinced that is what is truly going on in their mind. That may have been the case 10 years ago, but I’d be more inclined to think that they are terrified of their own population more than any other force(s) today – and thus all the military transfers.
Just a guess.