Rouhani’s Cautious Pick For Defense Minister
Iran’s new defense minister is a sign of President Hassan Rouhani’s interest in balancing moderate and conservative forces.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani presented his final list of cabinet nominees to parliament on Aug. 4, generating a heated discussion about Rouhani’s intentions and his relations with other regime centers of power. While the logical inclination has been to focus on the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy, we might also look to the Ministry of Defense for early insight into Rouhani’s relationship with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one of the regime’s most powerful organizations.
Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) dominates the state’s global military-industrial complex and plays an integral role in issues in which the IRGC is heavily invested. The United States, European Union and United Nations Security Council have all sanctioned MODAFL and its subsidiaries for their role in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs. As recently as December 2012, the United States has also targeted MODAFL for its role in arming President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
MODAFL has long been overseen by senior IRGC officials. Former commander of the Quds Force Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi has led the organization since 2009. Vahidi was preceded by Brig. Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar (2005-2009), Ahmadinejad’s second-term interior minister with long-standing ties to the IRGC’s military industry. Before Najjar came the head of the Armed Forces Strategic Studies Center, Maj. Gen. Ali Shamkhani (1997-2005), who rose to prominence as an IRGC commander during the Iran-Iraq War and later concurrently led the IRGC and Artesh navies.
It is not surprising, then, that Rouhani has nominated another senior IRGC commander to lead this key ministry. After reportedly having his initial pick, Hossein Alaei, rejected by the supreme leader, Rouhani selected Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan. Dehghan joined the IRGC shortly after the revolution in 1979 and was quickly promoted to command the IRGC’s Tehran unit (1980-1982). He deployed to the Levant in 1982 to lead the IRGC’s Lebanon and Syria contingents, and upon his return to Iran in 1984, resumed command of IRGC forces in Tehran (Sarallah District One) before being appointed the IRGC's air force deputy commander (1986), commander (1990) and, finally, deputy chief of the IRGC Joint Staff (1992).
