Close Menu
    Facebook Instagram LinkedIn
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • English
    • Français (French)
    Facebook Instagram LinkedIn
    Middle East Transparent
    • Home
    • Categories
      1. Headlines
      2. Features
      3. Commentary
      4. Magazine
      Featured
      Headlines Hanin Ghaddar and Ehud Yaari

      Disarming Palestinian Factions in Lebanon Means Disarming Hezbollah

      Recent
      21 May 2025

      Disarming Palestinian Factions in Lebanon Means Disarming Hezbollah

      13 May 2025

      The Pope and the Vatican: Divine Right or Male Monopoly? Elderly Men Excluding Women and Youth in the Name of Heaven

      11 May 2025

      Leo is America’s first pope. His worldview appears at odds with ‘America First.’

    • Contact us
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • English
    • Français (French)
    Middle East Transparent
    You are at:Home»AN INTERVIEW WITH AHMADINEJAD’S CHIEF OF STAFF

    AN INTERVIEW WITH AHMADINEJAD’S CHIEF OF STAFF

    0
    By Sarah Akel on 9 May 2010 Uncategorized

    Posted by Laura Secor

    Yesterday morning, I had a rare opportunity to sit down with a man many see as the right hand and most trusted advisor of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is a longtime friend of Ahmadinejad, a relative by marriage, and a member of his innermost circle, a coterie so tight as to form a faction within a faction in Iran’s ruling establishment. His name is Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, and he is the Iranian president’s chief of staff.

    Mashaei is a controversial figure among the Iranian hardliners, a lightning rod for the few known tensions between Ahmadinejad’s circle and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Curiously, this is because Mashaei has a reputation for being comparatively moderate and unpredictable. In 2008, when he was a vice-president (Iran has twelve) in charge of tourism, Mashaei made headlines for suggesting that Iran’s quarrel with Israel was with its government and not its people. Iran, he claimed, was a friend of all the world’s people, including Americans and Israelis. Mashaei walked that comment back, but it clearly sat badly with the traditional conservatives around Khamenei. Mashaei had already come to their attention when he attended a ceremony in Turkey at which women performed a traditional dance. In Iran, women are strictly forbidden to dance in front of men.

    After last summer’s contested presidential election, Ahmadinejad appointed Mashaei First Vice-President. In an unusually public rebuke to Ahmadinejad, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei demanded that Mashaei be removed from that position. Ahmadinejad complied—he had no choice—but he shocked analysts with a show of defiance, making Mashaei his chief of staff. Iranian journalists speculate that Mashaei is close to the president spiritually as well as politically, and that the two men hold similar views of their personal relationships with the hidden imam—the Shiite messiah.

    Read more on The New Yorker website

    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email WhatsApp Copy Link
    Previous ArticleIt’s Not the Scuds, It’s Support for the Resistance
    Next Article The missiles are coming

    Comments are closed.

    RSS Recent post in french
    • Dima de Clerck, historienne : « Au Liban, il règne aujourd’hui une guerre civile sourde » 17 May 2025 Laure Stephan
    • Les bonnes affaires du président au Moyen-Orient 17 May 2025 Georges Malbrunot
    • La stratégie séparatiste des Emirats arabes unis 16 May 2025 Jean-Pierre Filiu
    • Les premiers secrets de l’élection de Léon XIV 13 May 2025 Jean-Marie Guénois
    • Al-Charaa en visite à Paris : « Les Européens se laissent berner parce qu’ils prennent leurs rêves pour des réalités » 8 May 2025 Hughes Maillot
    RSS Recent post in arabic
    • مُرَشَّح مُتَّهَم بالفساد لرئاسة بلدية “العاقورة”! 21 May 2025 خاص بالشفاف
    • فضل شاكر.. التقاء الخطَّين المتوازيين 20 May 2025 عمر حرقوص
    • الغطاء الديني لتجارة الجنس: كواليس “زواج المتعة” في إيران 19 May 2025 إيران إنترناشينال
    • إسرائيل تعلن الاستحواذ على “الأرشيف السوري الرسمي” الخاص بإيلي كوهين 18 May 2025 أ ف ب
    • نعيم قاسم… اعتذِر من الكويت 18 May 2025 علي الرز
    26 February 2011

    Metransparent Preliminary Black List of Qaddafi’s Financial Aides Outside Libya

    6 December 2008

    Interview with Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed

    7 July 2009

    The messy state of the Hindu temples in Pakistan

    27 July 2009

    Sayed Mahmoud El Qemany Apeal to the World Conscience

    8 March 2022

    Russian Orthodox priests call for immediate end to war in Ukraine

    Recent Comments
    • Edward Ziadeh on As Church awaits a Conclave, President Trump puts up picture of himself as next Pope
    • Victoria Perea on As Church awaits a Conclave, President Trump puts up picture of himself as next Pope
    • Victoria Perea on As Church awaits a Conclave, President Trump puts up picture of himself as next Pope
    • M sam on Kuwait: The Gulf state purging tens of thousands of its citizens
    • Aadam Peer on How important is the Dome of the Rock in Islam?
    Donate
    Donate
    © 2025 Middle East Transparent

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    loader

    Inscrivez-vous à la newsletter

    En vous inscrivant, vous acceptez nos conditions et notre politique de confidentialité.

    loader

    Subscribe to updates

    By signing up, you agree to our terms privacy policy agreement.

    loader

    اشترك في التحديثات

    بالتسجيل، فإنك توافق على شروطنا واتفاقية سياسة الخصوصية الخاصة بنا.