Rajavi: Cabinet composition signals stepped-up repression, export of terror, meddling in Iraq, escalation of nuclear projects
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 21-member cabinet introduced to the Majlis (Parliament) Sunday consists entirely of Revolutionary Guards, terrorists and officials of the regime’s suppressive machinery. At least 13 have been commanders and officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Maryam Rajavi said, “The message of this cabinet is stepped-up repression, export of terror, meddling in Iraq and accelerated nuclear projects. [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei has now completed the dominance of the IRGC over all levers of power; a process that began in February 2004 with the purge of the rival faction from the Majlis. This signals the Supreme Leader’s absolute resolve in stepping up suppression inside the country, terrorism beyond Iran’s borders and a relentless pursuit to acquire nuclear weapons.”
“The catastrophic policy of appeasing the mullahs by Western countries, particularly the European Union, assured Khamenei that he could continue to crack down on the Iranian people, export fundamentalism and terrorism, and carry out the biggest internal purge of the regime with impunity. This policy also greatly helped the mullahs to get closer to the nuclear bomb,” Mrs. Rajavi added.
Thirteen of the 21 ministers have long records in the IRGC, Ministry of Defense and related organs. Davoud Danesh-Jafari, Hossein Saffar Harandi, Mostafa Mohammd-Najjar, Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi, Mohammad Jahromi, Masoud Mir-Kazemi, Seyyed Parviz Fattah, Mohammad Saidi-Kia, Mohammad-Reza Eskandari, Mohammad Rahmati, Alireza Tahmasebi, Mohammad Soleymani and Alireza Ali-Ahmadi, who are nominated for Economic, Culture and Islamic Guidance, Defense, Welfare and Social Security, Labor and Social Affairs, Commerce, Energy, Housing, Agricultural Jihad (Construction), Transport, Industries and Mines, Communications and Cooperatives ministries were former IRGC commanders and officers or worked in related agencies.
Defense Minister-designate IRGC Brig. Gen. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar is among key figures in export of terrorism and nuclear weapons procurement. He joined the IRGC since its inception in 1979 and played an active role in the suppression of people in Iranian Kurdistan, especially in the massacre in Naghadeh in 1979. In 1982, he was put in command of the IRGC Middle East Directorate (Lebanon, Palestine and Persian Gulf states) and spent most of his time in Lebanon. Mohammad-Najjar held that post until 1985 and carried out many missions in that country. Some reports note that he was in Lebanon when the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut was blown up in 1983.
Upon returning from Lebanon, Mohammad-Najjar began work in the Military Industries in 1985 and was the head of the Industries’ Group of Defense Industries Organization. The 320-mm mortars used to attack the People’s Mojahedin’s office in Baghdad in 1997 were built under his supervision.
The nominated Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Saffar-Harandi, was the former editor of Kayhan daily and a key official involved in persecution of writers and journalists. From 1980 until 1983, he was deputy commander of the IRGC’s sixth regional command (Hormuzgan, Kerman, Sistan and Baluchistan provinces). From 1984 to 1994, he was in charge of IRGC Political Directorate. Saffar-Harandi worked closely with the notorious Deputy Intelligence Minister Saeed Emami who planned and carried out the "chain murders" in the 1990s.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister-designate Mohammad Jahromi founded the IRGC branches in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces in northern Iran. Commerce Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi-designate was responsible for planning the IRGC’s logistics and an advisor to the Defense Minister since 2001. Energy Minister-designate Parviz Fattah was an IRGC commander, including Deputy Commander of the Corp’s Special Division during the Iran-Iraq war.
Foreign Minister-designate Manouchehr Mottaki was appointed as ambassador to Turkey in 1985. He has a long record in planning and organizing terrorist operations particularly against Resistance’s activists and dissidents abroad. Mottaki was directly involved in planning and implementing the abduction of Mr. Abol-Hassan Mojtahedzadeh, an Iranian Resistance activist, in Turkey in 1988 and the attempt on the lives of Messrs. Mohammad Mohaddessin and Hossein Abedini in 1990 in Istanbul. In his position as the Foreign Ministry’s legal and international deputy, Mottaki provided service and diplomatic passports to the regime’s terrorists. In 2001, he was appointed as Deputy for Communications in the Islamic Culture and Communications Organization, the Iranian regime’s principal agency for fundamentalist activities abroad as well as recruiting and training foreign nationals for terrorist operations.
Interior Minister-designate Mullah Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi was among the perpetrators of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. Since the inception of the Intelligence Ministry, Pour-Mohammadi acted as deputy to the Minister, mullah Mohammad Mohammadi Rayshahri. As the Ministry’s representative, Pour-Mohammadi took part in the meetings of the "Death Commission" that was tasked with carrying out Khomeini’s fatwa to massacre 30,000 political prisoners. He was a Deputy Intelligence Minister under Ali Fallahiyan and Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi in the 1990s. Pour-Mohammadi was among the principals in the "chain murders" in the 1990s, in which at least 120 dissidents, writers and intellectuals were abducted and brutally murdered.
Intelligence Minister-designate Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Eje’i represented the Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in the MOIS and played an active role in the arrest and execution of the Mojahedin and other dissidents in the 1980s. As the chief judge in branch three of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, Mohseni Eje’i personally sentenced to death thousands of political prisoners. He was appointed as the Acting Prosecutor in 1995 and as the Prosecutor in 1998 for the Special Tribunal for the Clergy, where, he personally took part in the sentencing, imprisonment and execution of hundreds of dissident clerics.
Justice Minister-designate Jamal Karimi-Rad was Assistant Revolutionary Prosecutor, General Prosecutor in Kurdistan, General and Revolutionary Prosecutor in Zanjan and Qazvin provinces, head of the Revolutionary Court, responsible for dealing with judiciary employees’ violations in Qazvin, and the Military Prosecutor. In these positions, Karimi-Rad personally issued sentences to arrest, punish and execute hundreds of political activists and purge hundreds of dissident judges.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 15, 2005