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Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Has Messianic Ties
//pajamasmedia.com/2007/10/jalili_joins_irans...
October 22, 2007 7:25 AM
Jalili: Apocalypse Now?
Iran’s new chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is close to the same
apocalyptic splinter group as Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
reveals PJM analyst Meir Javedanfar.
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by Meir Javedanfar
While the world catches its breath after the sudden resignation of
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, questions are being asked
about the background and beliefs of his successor, Saeed Jalili. The
answers, it turns out, are troubling.
Until today, not much has been known about the 41 year old gray-haired
official. He has a PhD from Imam Sadegh University in Tehran. As a
soldier during the Iraq-Iran war, he apparently survived a chemical
attack by Saddam Hussein’s forces.
Sometime later during the war he was shot in his right leg which
according to one report had to be amputated. According to the same
report, since then Jalili has worn an artificial leg. He is a known
follower of Khomeini’s “simple living” lifestyle philosophy. During his
stint as a Foreign Ministry official he served at a number of
departments where, apparently, he did not make use of amenities made
available to employees. For example, he continued to drive an
inexpensive KIA Pride to work instead of trading it in for a more
luxurious car.
As the Foreign Ministry Deputy Head of the American and European
section at the Foreign Ministry, Jalili is known to have worked until
the early hours of the morning in his office in his efforts to
strengthen the co-operation of Iran with Southern hemisphere countries.
This was part of the “south-south” strategy, according to which it was
believed that Ahmadinejad’s government would be able to look for and
find alliances with countries such as Venezuela. It is also reported
that that Ahmadinejad has consulted Jalili on a number of key moves —
according to one report, Ahmadinejad’s infamous 18 page letter to
President Bush was, in fact, Jalili’s idea.
The most worrying revelation about Jalili’s past appeared today in the
Iran Diplomacy website. This Tehran-based news agency, in an article
titled “Dr Ali Leaves, Dr Saeed Enters” revealed that for most of his
career at the Foreign Ministry, Jalili worked closely with Mojtaba
Hashemi Samare, a leading messianic and a close ally of Ayatollah
Mesbah Yazdi, the most well-known and high-ranking messianic cleric in
Iran. The article talks about how Jalili cooperated with Hashemi Samare
in the Inspectorate department of Ministry. It also mentions that for a
short time, Jalili also worked with Ahmadinejad.
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi is a former member of the Hojattieh, a messianic
splinter group which was disbanded by Ayatollah Khomeini in the early
1980s because of its extremist views. The sect’s goals are to sow chaos
— the goal of which is to incite a massive war, presumably necessary to
speed up the return of the Shiite messiah, known as the Mahdi.
After the forced disintegration of the sect, Mesbah Yazdi moved to the
holy city of Qom, where he ran the Imam Khomeini Foundation and the
Haghaniye school. From there, he passed on his messianic beliefs to
young clerics and revolutionaries whom he hoped one day would reach
senior government levels. One of his early successes was Hashemi
Samare, who in the early 90s managed to find a position inside Iran’s
Foreign Ministry. He soon rose through the ranks and became one of the
key officials at the Ministry. His main job there was to make sure that
Iranian ambassadors were staying true to revolutionary beliefs and
Islamic ways while serving abroad. He soon developed a much-feared
reputation for recalling diplomats and even ambassadors whom he
suspected of becoming Westernized. Some were locked inside the basement
of the Foreign Ministry for days, where, using interrogation techniques
including physical violence, he “re-educated” them. Another important
characteristic of Hashemi Samare was that in his office, instead of a
picture of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, he hung a portrait
of the messianic Mesbah Yazdi. He showed no fear about showing where
his true allegiances lay. It should be noted that the presence of such
people with such extreme views in the Iranian government has
contributed greatly to its image as a fundamentalist government.
During his entire career, Hashemi Samare has looked for, and recruited
fellow messianics. No one else would be allowed to work with him. In
the 1990s, one of these associates included a very little known war
veteran and bureaucrat called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who for a very short
while, worked for him at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. After that
Ahmadinejad was posted to the Ardebil province where he became the
governor. The two men continuously maintained contact and upon his
return to Tehran in 1997, their friendship and cooperation continued.
Today, Hashemi Samare is Ahmadinejad’s deputy and most trusted
confidant. He can be seen everywhere with the President, especially
during foreign travel, such as his recent trip to New York, and when
receiving for senior foreign visitors such as Putin. Some former
reformists have even said that while praying, Ahmadinejad stands behind
Hashemi Samare; an unmistakable sign of respect and adherence which a
person can show to his mentor in Iranian religious circles.
Jalili’s closeness with Hashemi Samare, and his appointment as the head
of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and as the head of
Iran’s nuclear negotiation team shows that the messianics have scored
another major victory in placing one of their allies in a senior
political position. Now they can boast that, along with holding
positions of power in the Ministry of Intelligence (Gholam Hosssein
Ejehi), Ministry of Interior (Mostafa Pour Mohammadi), and, of course,
the Presidency (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) - by having Saeed Jalili as chief
nuclear negotiator, they now have a stronger say over how Iran deals
with the West over its nuclear program.
Despite this power, the messianics will still find a strong obstacle,
in the form of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who, for now,
has the last word on Iran’s nuclear program.
The increasing presence of messianics and their allies in high ranking
positions inside the Iranian government will make it much more
difficult for Western governments to believe that Iran’s leadership
will at any point in the near future be ready to find a negotiated
settlement for the current crisis.
Meir Javedanfar is the co-author of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran –
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. He runs the Middle East
Economic and Political Analysis (Meepas)
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