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Frank Gallagher

Rafa and Khamenei Talking to Senior Clerics - 1 views

www.roozonline.com/...ld-be-careful-not-to-fall.html

shared by Frank Gallagher on 26 Jul 09 - Cached
  • After delivering his landmark sermon last Friday, Rafsanjani left for the city of Mashhad to consult with senior clerics there, particularly ayatollah Vaeze Tabasi (the head of the memorial of the Shiite’s eight saint in that city) and other clerics such as Safi Golpaygani and Makarem Shirazi (both of whom are on a visit to the city) about the post election crises that has erupted in Iran. Among those who came to welcome Rafsanjani in Mashhad were Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, the governor of Khorasan province, ayatollah Elm-alhoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, seyed Ahmad Alavi, the deputy of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ghods
  • It should be noted that in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s latest trip to <st1:place w:st="on">Mashhad</st1:place> recently, senior cleric Vaez Tabasi notably refrained from welcoming him.
  • In a related news, reformist website Moje Azadi (Wave of Freedom) wrote that ayatollah Khamenei plans to meet with a number of senior clerics in Qom (including ayatollah Javadi Amoli and ayatollah Amini, both Friday prayer leaders of Qom). It is said that he will be talking about his support of Ahmadinejad and discussing options for a political solution to resolve the current crises, among other topics.
Frank Gallagher

Profile of Mojtaba Khamenei - Tehran Bureau - 0 views

tehranbureau.com/man-shadow-mojtaba-khamenei

Basij

shared by Frank Gallagher on 19 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Karroubi was certainly not the first senior figure to protest Mojtaba Khamenei’s intervention on behalf of the extreme right. Before him, Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, another former Speaker of the Majles and a close aid to Ayatollah Khamenei, had quietly protested the younger Khamenei’s meddling in the political process. (Nategh Nouri, a mid-rank cleric, heads the Supreme Leader’s Office of Inspection)
  • In the last year before the 1979 Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei and two other clerics, Abbas Vaez Tabasi and Sayyed Abdolkarim Hasheminejad, formed a sort of leadership ring that led most of the demonstrations and political activities against the Shah in Mashhad and the Khorasan province, which was Iran’s largest province at that time.
  • Vaez Tabasi is now a powerful cleric who runs the shrine of Imam Reza (the Shiites’ 8th Imam), in Mashhad. He is believed to be a Rafsanjani ally.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • His son, Mojtaba, attended Alavi High School, a private religious school with a rigorous course load. (The school is located on Iran Street in central Tehran, where the author grew up.) Many of Iran’s present leaders are graduates of this high school.
  • His first teachers were his own father and Ayatollah Sayyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the current judiciary chief. Mojtaba was not a cleric yet. In 1999, he moved to Qom to study to join the ranks of clerics. He was taught there by conservative and ultraconservative clerics such as Mesbah Yazdi; Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, the first Secretary-General of the Guardian Council in the 1980s; and Ayatollah Sayyed Mohsen Kharrazi, the father of former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi. (Kharrazi’s real name is Sayyed Mohsen Agha Mir Mohammad Ali and his daughter is married to Mojtaba’s younger brother, Mohsen, a junior cleric.)
  • Mojtaba Khamenei is also very close to Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali,
  • One link is a mysterious figure not known to most Iranians. His name is Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaght, who is a great supporter of Mojtaba Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei’s third child, Mostafa (Mojtaba’s older brother), is married to Khoshvaght’s daughter.
  • Khoshvaght is the prayer leader of a large mosque in northern Tehran, and a radical hardliner. Saeed Emami, the notorious figure who was responsible for the infamous Chain Murders in the fall of 1998, which resulted in the murder of six Iranian dissidents (and the murder of close to 70 other dissidents from 1988-1998), was a follower of Khoshvaght.
  • Khoshvaght is also close to and influential in the affairs of Ansar-e Hezbollah,
  • Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Brigadier General Sayyed Mohammad Hejazi,
  • The third link between Mojtaba Khamenei and the paramilitary groups is Hassan Taeb, the current commander of the Basij. A hardliner and cleric, he is also linked with Mesbah Yazdi and his followers.
  • Other relatively young radicals and disciples of Mesbah Yazdi include Mohsen Gharavian and Ghassem Ravanbakhsh. The former always attempts to present a moderate and reasonable image of Mesbah Yazdi and his thinking, whereas the latter who is the editor-in-chief of Partow Sokhan, the weekly published by Mesbah Yazdi, is virulently opposed to the reformist-democratic movement.
  • However, many clerics in Qom dispute Mojataba Khamenei’s religious credentials.
  • There have been persistent rumors that Brigadier General Ali Fazli, who lost his left eye in the Iran-Iraq war, the commander of the IRGC forces in the Tehran province, has been opposed to the harsh crackdown on the protesters and demonstrators (reportedly ordered by Mojtaba Khamenei). Both he and Major General Mohammad Ali (Aziz) Jafari, the top commender of the IRGC, are said to be opposed to Mojtaba Khamenei’s meddling and power plays.
  • Mojtaba Khamenei is married to a daughter of Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, a university professor and former conservative Speaker of the Majles. After he was elected the Speaker of the 8th Majles in 2004, Haddad Adel once said, “We were told [by Ayatollah Khamenei] to be here [in the Majles to control it for the Ayatollah],” for which he was widely mocked by the reformists. But this statement indicated how the Ayatollah was putting his loyalists everywhere. Ayatollah Khamenei’s oldest daughter is married to Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, his chief of staff.
Frank Gallagher

Who's Who Amongst Iran's Divided Clerics - 0 views

tehranbureau.com/widening-divide

Iran Association of Combatant Clerics Society of Combatant Clerics Qom Haqqani Assembly of Experts

shared by Frank Gallagher on 01 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Frank Gallagher on 01 Jul 09
     
    Very detailed, if slightly all over the place.
Frank Gallagher

Haghani Circle - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Haghani_Circle

nehzat iran qom mezbah-yazdi neocon

shared by Frank Gallagher on 03 May 09 - Cached
  • Frank Gallagher on 03 May 09
     
    A key institutional node in the networks which make up the 'Nehzat'
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