Another Military Commander in National Security Council

Iranian blogger, Arash Motamed, Rooz Online:

Commander Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the former Commander of the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps has been appointed deputy to Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Once appointed as the secretary general of the National Security Council, Ali Larijani transformed the structure of the council and replaced reform minded individuals such as Ali Rabee with radical and military commanders. Appointing Zolghadr, a dedicated supporter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as a radical fundamentalist, to such a sensitive post is a major change in the composition of the body.

Zolghadr is a known extremist in Iranian politics and even by Iranian standards. Shargh daily calls him one of the main organizers of the anti-reform movement and someone who has always taken extremely harsh stands on cultural and foreign issues. The Iranian Students News Agency quotes his threatening and alarming words that if the United States attacks Iran, Iran would certainly retaliate by targeting US interests any where in the world. On cultural issues, he has vowed to destroy those whom he considers to be “enemies” of Islamic culture. READ MORE

As part of a complicated strategy on the eve of student unrest in July of 1998, Zolghadr was among commanders who in a letter to former president Mohammad Khatami threatened to stage a coup against him if he was soft on the students. During the recent election campaign, he along with Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was among the strategists and organizers that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

He has also been calling for the formation of an Islamic state, as opposed to a republic. After the announcement of the results of the presidential elections, he has been praising Ahmadinejad and has called for a campaign to clampdown on “enemies”, which purportedly means those questioning official policy or calling for open debate on the current issues facing the country.

He has positively called Ahmadinejad the symbol of fundamentalism, piety, revolutionary and just. He has interpreted Ahmadineajd’s victory to be the sign of people’s loyalty to the ideals and goals of the revolution as defined in the early days of the Islamic republic.

When Ahmadinejad was elected as Iran's president, he changed the structure of the armed forces, a move that was guided and supported by Iran's supreme leader. Commander Zolghadr was one of the first to be appointed to the newly founded Sepah Centre, a move that has been interpreted as a step to distance himself from Hezbe Motalefe, i.e. the Coalition Party that may be of different fundamentalist brand. So by appointing Zolghadr to the National Security Council, Ali Larijani has in fact inflicted another blow to the Motalefe party, thus better positioning himself for his war.