Enrichment of the Foreign Ministry

After dismissing Manoutchehr Mottaki from his Foreign Ministry post, the President of the Islamic republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed the head of the Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi as the caretaker of the foreign policy apparatus of the country, while maintaining his post at the nuclear organization.

In the appointment letter, Ahmadinejad wrote that Salehi possessed “commitment, knowledge and valuable experience” for his new post.

Salehi is a prominent figure in Iran’s physics world and holds a Ph.D. in technical science from MIT. His earlier posts have included being the chancellor of Sharif Industrial University, serving as Iran’s representative at the International Atomic Energy in Vienna, and being the deputy chairman of the Islamic Conference Organization. He has no record of any diplomatic activity at the foreign ministry.

The Representative of the Traditional Right

According to Mehr News agency, Mottaki was in Senegal when Ahmadinejad removed him from office, while being the longest serving cabinet in the president’s administration. He stayed in Ahmadinejad’s cabinet for some five and a half years, while the president himself holds the record of the most firings of ministers and deputies of any president.

In Ahmadinejad’s letter of appointment, he thanks Mottaki for his “efforts and service” and wished that “this service will be rewarded divinely.”

Mottaki’s tenure has been marked with trouble and controversy from the very first year of his appointment with regular rumors of his dismissal, none of which materialized until this week. The departing minister is a long-standing Iranian career diplomat who joined the ministry in 1984. Prior to being appointed as foreign minister, he was the head of a political group called the Association of Graduate Students of the Indian Subcontinent. This group was among the 14 members of a front known as the Peyrovane Khate Imam va Rahbari (Followers of the Line of Khomeini, a coalition of traditional right-wing groups) lead by Habibollah Asqar Owladi. Mottaki was also a senior official at Ali Larijani’s campaign headquarters during the latter’s bid for the presidency in 2005. Many observers have viewed Mottaki as the only representative of the traditional right in Ahmadinejad’s cabinet.

The Travel Banned Successor

Iran’s Fars News agency, which is commonly known to be affiliated with military-security agencies, yesterday quoted ”an informed source” to suggest that Salehi’s deputy at the AEO Mohammad Ghanadi Maraghei would be elevated to head the nuclear agency. He currently heads the nuclear science and technology research center, an important affiliate to the nuclear problem of Iran. His name appears on the list of banned individuals identified in the UN sanctions against Iran. In these resolutions, all governments are committed to prevent Ghanadi from travelling through their country.

Last Minister

Mottaki is Ahmadinejad’s eight minister who has been personally sacked by him during his two presidential terms. Others personally sacked include minister of welfare, minister of cooperatives, minister of oil, minister of the interior, minister of economy, minister of culture and Islamic guidance, and minister of intelligence. Others have left Ahmadinejad’s cabinet through resignations, which include former minister of industries Alireza Tahmasebi, and former minister of education Mahmoud Farshidi. A multitude of other heads of government agencies have also been directly dismissed by Ahmadinejad, making his tenure as the presidency with the most dismissals.

Larijani’s Mole

The reason for Mottaki’s dismissal has not yet been published, but it appears that this decision is rooted in the differences between him and the president over the management of the foreign policy of the Islamic regime.

Mottaki’s position in the cabinet has been shaky, and just this summer when Ahmadinejad appointed several political aides for geographic regions of the world, his differences with president were taken to the media. Even though the Majlis, Iran’s parliament, immediately opposed the president’s appointment of these regional aides, it took time until Mottaki expressed his displeasure. Some observers believe that his dismissal is related to his closeness to Ali Larijani, the current Majlis speaker. This affinity has also led to the view that Mottaki was an imposed minister who did not enjoy the president’s full confidence.

According to Iran’s Diplomacy website, when ayatollah Khamenei publicly said that the foreign ministry was in charge of the country’s foreign policy planning and direction, everybody expected Ahmadinejad to rescind his decision to appoint regional aides and relegate the diplomatic dealings of the state to the foreign ministry. But Ahmadinejad continued his appointments of regional aides. He had also said that more such appointments would be coming from non-foreign ministry cadres. These events led Mottaki to respond publicly to being bypassed and criticize one of the president’s aides, Baghai, who had made damaging remarks regarding what is commonly known as the massacre of Armenian in Turkey.

Responses: I Was Shocked; We Are Ridiculed

Mottaki’s dismissal as foreign minister takes place as the Islamic republic and the Group 5+1 Western powers held their first round of talks earlier this month after a year+ freeze, and even though the talks are led by Iran’ national security council, the US nevertheless expressed its concern.

US secretary of state Hilary Clinton said that she hoped the departure of Mottaki would not negatively impact the talks.

Members of the Majlis responded to the event in unison: unawareness. They said that Ahmadinejad did not consult with them. The head of the security and foreign policy committee of the assembly questioned the dismissal by pointing out that the foreign minister was removed from office after being sent on a trip outside, adding that he heard of his discharge from a Khabar Online reporter. Another lawmaker, Ghodratollah Alikhani from the minority faction told Faroroo website, “Mottaki was dismissed in the worst possible way,” and added, “the world laughs at us for the way we treated our own minister.”

Rajanews (the mouthpiece of Ahmadinejad’s administration) called the discharge a “long overdue” event, and expressed its hope that the country’s diplomatic machinery would be positively “transformed.” On explaining its reason for the removal, the news agency wrote, “The diplomacy of the ninth and tenth administration are commonly known to be active and aggressive, which have been approved by the leader, but this has been because of the president’s initiatives and speeches while the foreign ministry did not present an acceptable record on this. This had caused an expectation for change at the head of the foreign ministry and its replacement with someone who shares the president’s characteristics.”