Erfan Fard
For the first time, one of the hardliner’s media ( Saberin News and an IRGC affiliated Telegram channel) revealed “Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), may go soon and he be replaced by one of IRGC’s terrorist commanders”. Most likely, Khamenei will wring his neck. He cannot see the wood for the trees.
It is, if you like, rare for Shamkhani to miss a day at SNSC, some rumors in social media are in the public eyes that “he is related to the Saudi or British intelligence and so on and so forth.” This issue has had a high profile in recent months, that Shamkhani has influence in some so-called anti-regime’s media outside Iran. it should be remembered that he who laughs last laughs longest.
Shamkhani is one of Iran’s prominent strategists. His credentials distance the spectrum of regime’s various power centers, including the IRGC terrorists, Army, MODALF etc. Particularly, Shamkhani has become more powerful in recent times, predominantly his involvement and authority in the various organs within regime’s military and intelligence.
If the lights down on Shamkhani, he is one of the regime figures with terrorist background. Before 1979, he and Mohsen Rezaei were active in Mansuron Militia which was an Islamic terrorist group related to Khomini. Specifically, Shamkhani was in the wing of Rafsanjani- Qalibaf.
In 1997, he played a role in the administration of Khatami and made a channel with Saudi Arabia. Almost certainly since Khatami’s era, Shamkhani and Mohajerani were in payroll of Saudis. As an Arab ethnic, he is fluent in Arabic language with a gift of the gab he has. And these days, some of the oppositions believes that Iran International TV is under the influence of these above-mentioned notorious and corrupted figures.
As a defense minister, Shamkhani was under the shadow of Qassem Soleimani but with a similar mindset in ruthlessness and dogma. Shamkhani is in the pro-regime’s realm of moderates and reformists. For this reason from 2009 he was in Shadow as a military officer of IRGC.
When Rouhani triumphed in the presidential election in 2013, Shamkhani appeared on the political scene once more. Simultaneously, during this course, he and his corrupted family were active in business. he himself is the holder of many companies from Tehran to India and Philippines. For Shamkhani’s family, the sanctions were a great opportunity for accumulating wealth.
Markedly, Shamkhani is a familiar face for the intelligence community of the US. For a while in Afghanistan, he had a negotiation with American intelligence community. On 20 February 2020, the US Treasury Department extended its sanctions again under Executive Order 13876 to Shamkhani amongst other individuals, following “the disqualification of several thousand electoral candidates by Iran’s Guardian Council.”
Moreover, Ali Shamkhani, former Iran’s national security chief, went off the rail and he was behind many terrorist operations during his tenure. Shamkhani, was seeking to end the cycle of protests and repression.
Nowadays, IRGC and MOIS sentenced his fellow, Alireza Akbari because of allegedly spying for MI6. It goes without saying that these internal conflicts show a crisis in the regime’s corpus. Who will be the next figure in SNSC? In all probability, ninety-nine times out of hundred times, one of the commanders of IRGC terrorists will consolidate its position after being at the hekm, such as Ahmad Vahidi, Mostafa Najaar, Gholam Ali Rashid. People get what they deserve.
The outset of Shamkhani, one of the thugs of Khuzestan, is an important news for the intelligence structure of Iran. a warning bell rings in regime. Just so!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erfan Fard is a counter-terrorism analyst and Middle East Studies researcher based in Washington, DC. He is in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran, counter terrorism, IRGC, MOIS and ethnic conflicts in MENA. He graduated in International Security Studies (London M. University, UK), and in International Relations (CSU-LA). Erfan is fluent in Persian, Kurdish, Arabic and English. / Follow him from this twitter account @EQFARD / The newly published book of Erfan Fard is: “The gruesome mullah” , which has been published in the USA.
