The Iranian state-run news agency ILNA reported on October 9 that Yaghoub Ali Nazari received a vote of confidence in the cabinet meeting as the governor of Khorasan Razavi.
He was previously the commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Imam Reza Base, the deputy of the Panj Nasr Division of Khorasan, and the deputy coordinator of the IRGC Imam Reza Base. He was also in charge of the IRGC Ansar al-Reza base in South Khorasan Province.
Governors with a military history of different provinces
Before Nazari, several other governors had been elected from the IRGC:
Ahmad Mohammadizadeh, the appointed governor in Bushehr province, was the commander of the second naval zone of the Revolutionary Guards. He was also the IRGC’s Deputy Naval Coordinator. In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, he also held positions such as senior oil adviser.
The new governor of Hormozgan province Mehdi Dosti, a civil engineering expert and former deputy director of the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Holding of the Khatam al-Anbia base of the Revolutionary Guards.
The new governor of Tehran, Mohsen Mansouri, was a member of the board of directors of the Astan Quds Razavi Dignity Foundation and the deputy of the Mostazafan Foundation and the governor of Varamin city. He has been the deputy director of the Mostazafan Foundation and the managing director of the Alavi Foundation.
Other senior members of the Revolutionary Guards were also employed in various places in the new government.
The state-run daily Mardom Salari newspaper about the militarization of the governorates by appointing from the members of the IRGC, quoting a former Interior Ministry official wrote:
“The election of a military to the post of the most political government ministry means the superiority of the military and security view in dealing with internal issues.”
Although not much time has passed since Ahmad Vahidi took office, and many governors have not yet been elected, but these few appointments show what the regime and its new interior minister think about and will do.
Mardom Salari added: “The Ministry of Interior is the only ministry that has serious responsibilities and missions in these areas, so the bold selection of military personnel for the body and subdivisions of the Ministry of Interior can raise concerns that policies in areas that are not the case of security and military concern are moving toward the security and disciplinary (police) field.
“In fact, there is a fear that in other areas, including important social and political areas, the selection of such persons will not lead to the correct analysis and interpretation, and ultimately the correct confrontation with the current political and social phenomena of the country. The generalization of the security and military perspective in the political and social spheres is a threat.
“Therefore, if the selection line by the Ministry of Interior proceeds in the same way, considering that the specialty of the Minister is the security and military field, it can be considered a specific weakness for the Ministry of Interior in the new term and will have further unpleasant and negative effects for the entire government.”
Finally, this daily pointed to the regime’s main concern and fear which has led to the appointment of so many IRGC members in various positions of the government and wrote:
“There is no denying that the situation in the country is such that potential grievances turn into actual protests. These statements do not require precise reasoning or security information. Because general conditions indicate this situation.
“However, the type of confrontation of the responsible agencies of the country, specifically the Ministry of Interior with these possible phenomena in the future, cannot be accurately predicted.”
As this state-run daily acknowledged while quoting an official, the appointment of this many IRGC commanders to key political positions as a result of anticipating the critical and dangerous situation in the coming months for the regime.
People’s dissatisfaction has reached a point where it is not possible to manage the government with soft and disciplinary (police) tools. Therefore, the Revolutionary Guards elements are employed in sensitive and important provinces to be able to carry out security control more easily in critical situations.
