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Sun, Jan 09, 2011 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

President Ahmadinejad removes 14 of his advisors

President Ahmadinejad Reorganizes Office, Removes 14 Advisors

This week, President Ahmadinejad dismissed 14 of his advisors. The surprise move came only three weeks after he sacked foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The president thanked and said goodbye to the 14 advisors at a ceremony held last Saturday.

The advisors who were removed include press advisor Mehdi Kalhor, economic affairs advisor Davoud Danesh Ja’fari, commerce advisors Abolfazl Tavakoli Bina and Mohammad Reza Etemadian, oil and gas advisor Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, education advisor Sousan Keshavarz, youth advisor Mohammad Javad Hajj Ali Akbari, local councils advisor Mehdi Chamran, and culture advisor Ali Asghar Zare’i (various news agencies, January 2).

The report was confirmed by Mehdi Kalhor, the president’s dismissed media advisor, who noted he did not know why the president had made the decision to remove 14 of his advisors (Mehr, January 2). Mehdi Chamran and Davoud Danesh Ja’fari denied that they had been the president’s advisors in recent years (Fars, January 4).

Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the president’s media advisor, said the president’s decision to remove some of his advisors and appoint others in their stead was normal and natural. He further stated that some of the laid-off officials had in practice stopped serving as the president’s advisors even before (ISNA, January 3).

Tehran Emrouz, a daily affiliated with Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, the mayor of Tehran and Ahmadinejad’s political rival, claimed this week that the removal of the advisors reflected the growing distance between the president and key personalities formerly considered as his supporters. The daily reported disagreements on a number of issues between the president and many of his dismissed advisors. For example, Mehdi Kalhor, formerly considered one of the president’s confidants, criticized the government’s policy in several spheres, including the real estate construction policy, the plan to remove public employees from Tehran, and the conduct of the president’s office chief. Mehdi Chamran, who was one of Ahmadinejad’s major supporters when he was still mayor of Tehran, has distanced himself from the president in recent years due to disagreements on issues pertaining to the government’s policy towards the Tehran municipality. Sousan Keshavarz was also one of the president’s close allies, and was presented by him as a candidate for minister of education after the last elections in 2009. Her nomination was not approved by the Majles, however (Tehran Emrouz, January 3).

Farda, a website affiliated with the pragmatic conservative bloc, claimed in a commentary article that the president’s decision to remove his advisors had to do with the increasing status of the president’s office chief, Esfandiar Rahim Masha’i. The website claimed that the dismissal of the advisors was meant to remove from the president’s office conservatives who are not associated with the ideological faction to which Masha’i belongs (Farda, January 2).

On several occasions in recent months, Masha’i has provoked public and political scandals for making controversial remarks. Meanwhile, reports published on Iranian media say that he intends to run for president in the next elections, slated for 2013. Masha’i now holds numerous positions in the president’s office, including office chief, secretary of the government’s Culture Committee, head of the young presidential advisors team, acting president of the Supreme Council for Iranian Expatriates, member of the government’s Economy Committee, the president’s advisor on Middle East affairs, and the president’s representative on the Broadcasting Monitoring Council.