Circles close to Ali Khamenei’s faction have accessed that at least four ministers in Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet have backgrounds in working for the notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security of the Iranian regime.
1. Ali Rabi’ie, pseudonym Ebad inside the regime (candidate for Ministry of Labor), is the man with the most experience in intelligence work in Rouhani’s suggested cabinet.
2. Hamid Chit-chian, candidate for Ministry of Energy, is a former commander of intelligence section of IRGC in Tabriz. After the establishment of Ministry of Intelligence in 1983, he headed the “department for extra-territorial operations in Eastern Europe”.
3. Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, candidate for Ministry of Justice, was deputy to Ministry of Intelligence during the 1980s.
4. And Mahmoud Alawi, the candidate for Ministry of Intelligence, has similar background.
Presence of these four in Hassan Rouhani’s proposed list of cabinet ministers is described in Tehran as presence of four intelligence ministers in his cabinet.
According to observers, most close colleagues of Rouhani are security people in the regime of Velayat-e faqih, including Ali Younesi (Minister of Intelligence until 2005), Hesameddin Ashena (former deputy intelligence minister) and Mohammadreza Sadeq with a similar background.
Nonetheless, Khamenei’s faction is attempting to prevent vote of confidence for a number of Rouhani’s proposed minister. Kayhan, the daily closest to the supreme leader, highlighted a phrase in Khamenei’s speech at the end of Ramadan in the parliament and encouraged the parliament to filter the proposed ministers. Khamenei had said: “Responsibility of representatives is to select righteous ministers.”
