A policy brief published this week by
the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) describes the proposed
cabinet of recently inaugurated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as
having an "unprecedented" number of Ministry of Intelligence and
National Security (MOIS) veterans. Rouhani himself spent decades in top posts within Iran's security establishment and is considered to be a
consummate regime insider who
spent decades in top posts within Iran's security establishment. FDD
Senior Fellow Ali Alfoneh suggests that the cabinet's composition can be
read as part of a power struggle between MOIS and the Iran
Revolutionary Guards Corps. Iran observers are scrutinizing Rouhani's
cabinet picks for signals as to what policies a Rouhani administration
is likely to pursue. Concerns have been raised over several candidates.
Rouhani's proposed foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif,
has been blasted for minimizing the Holocaust. His proposed justice minister, Mullah Pour-Mohammadi, is accused by opposition groups
of playing a central role in campaigns of mass murder. His proposed intelligence minister, Seyed Mahmoud Alavi,
was previously appointed to
a top post by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Alavi last
fall gave a speech in which he celebrated Iran's "culture of martyrdom"
and declared that Tehran would "never back down against the
arrogance."
Wall Street Journal Assistant Books Editor Sohrab Ahmari, a Farsi speaker and Iran expert,
notes that the
latter phrase is regime shorthand for the United States and its allies.
Ahmari also describes a TV appearance by Alavi in which he described
the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas as Iran's "pupils" and boasted
that "Americans can't even take on" the groups.
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