| No, it's not good news. |
Armed forces spokesman General Alireza Afshar took over the job of deputy interior minister for political affairs from Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, one of the president’s closest advisers. “The reason I am leaving this job is that I was too busy,” Samareh Hashemi said according to Iranian state television.
Samareh Hashemi, who has known Ahmadinejad since university, served as his top adviser while he was Teheran mayor and is still rarely seen far from his side on domestic and foreign trips. He will remain in his other post as top adviser to the president.
The office of deputy interior minister is important because it is charged with organising elections in Iran, a position that gives a say in how the process is run.
| By sheer coincidence a top figure in the Revolutionary Guards will now be in charge of the next election. Sheer coincidence, mind you ... |
Iran’s deputy interior minister for political affairs also has some control over all 30 provincial governors-general, and chairs a supervisory board which issues licences for political parties and NGOs. “The most important task is to strengthen political dynamism in society so people
While praising Afshar, Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi
Like Ahmadinejad, Afshar has a background in IranÂ’s elite Revolutionary Guards and served as spokesman for the force during the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, state media said. Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr is the other deputy interior minister, in charge of security affairs. Previously he was a deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards. Pour Mohammadi, a mid-ranking cleric, is a former deputy minister of intelligence.