Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur

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Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur
Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur.jpg
Leader of Association of Combatant Clerics
Assumed office
15 August 2010
Deputy Majead Ansari
Preceded by Mousavi Khoeiniha
Minister of the Interior of Iran
In office
19 August 1985 – 3 August 1989
President Ali Khamenei
Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded by Nategh-Nouri
Succeeded by Abdollah Nouri
Personal details
Born 1947 (age 76–77)
Tehran, Iran
Political party Association of Combatant Clerics
Religion Shia Islam

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur or Mohtashami (Persian: علی‌اکبر محتشمی‎‎) (born 1947) is a Shia cleric who was active in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and later became interior minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[1] He is "seen as a founder of the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon"[2][3] and one of the "radical ... elements, advocating the export of the revolution," in the Iranian clerical hierarchy.[4]

In an assassination attempt targeting Mohtashami, he lost his right hand when he was opening a book loaded with explosives.[5]

Biography

Mohtashemi studied in the holy city of Najaf Iraq, where he spent considerable time with his mentor the Ayatollah Khomeini.[6] He also accompanied Khomeini in the exile period in both Iraq and France.[6] He cofounded an armed group in the 1970s with Mohammad Montazeri, son of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, in Lebanon and Syria, aiming at assisting liberation movements in Muslim countries.[6]

Following the revolution he served as Iran's ambassador to Syria from 1982 to 1986.[7] He later became Iran's minister of interior. While ambassador to Syria, he is thought to have played a "pivotal role" in the creation of the Lebanese radical Shia organization Hezbollah, working "within the framework of the Department for Islamic Liberation Movements run by the Iranian Pasdaran." Mohtashami "actively supervised" Hezbollah's creation, merging into it existing radical Shi'ite movements: the Lebanese al-Dawa; the Association of Muslim Students; Al Amal al Islamiyya.[8][9][10] In 1986 his "close supervision" of Hezbollah was cut short when the Office of Islamic Liberation was reassigned to Iran's ministry of foreign affairs.[11] He is also described as making "liberal" use of the diplomatic pouch as Ambassador, bringing in "crates" of material from Iran.[12]

The US Defense Intelligence Agency alleged[when?] that Mohtashamipur paid US$10 million[to whom?] for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.[citation needed]

In 1989[13] the new Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ousted Mohtashami from the Lebanon desk of the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs, replacing him with Rafsanjani's brother Mahmud Hashemi.[14] This was seen as an indication of Iran's downgrading of its support for Hezbollah and for a revolutionary foreign policy in general.[15]

In August 1991 he regained some of his influence when he became chairman of the defense committee of the Majlis (parliament) of Iran.[16]

More controversially, Mohtashami is thought

to have played an active role, with the Pasdaran and Syrian military intelligence, in the supervision of Hezbollah's suicide bomb attacks against the American embassy in Beirut in April 1983, the American and French contingents of the MNF in October 1983 and the American embassy annex in September 1984.[17][18]

and to have been instrumental in the killing of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, the American Chief of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization's (UNTSO) observer group in Lebanon who was taken hostage on 17 February 1988 by Lebanese pro-Iranian Shia radicals. The killing of Higgins is said to have come "from orders issued by Iranian radicals, most notably Mohtashemi," in an effort to prevent "improvement in the U.S.–Iranian relationship." [19]

While Mohtashami was a strong opponent of Western influence in the Muslim world and of the existence of the state of Israel,[20] he was also a supporter and advisor of reformist Iranian president Mohammad Khatami who was famous for championing of free expression and civil rights.[21] Mohtashemi was in the Western news again in 2000, not as a hardline radical but for refusing to appear in court in Iran after his pro-reform newspaper, Bayan, was banned.[2]

Attempted assassination

In 1984, after the Beirut bombings, Mohtashami received a parcel containing a book on Shia holy places when he was serving as Iranian ambassador to Damascus.[22] As he opened the package it detonated, blowing off his hand and severely wounding him. Mohtashami was medevaced to Europe and survived the blast to continue his work. The identity of the perpetrators of the attack is unknown.[23]

References

  1. ↑ Iran: Early Race For Clerical Assembly Gets Bitter Radio Liberty
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Iranian publisher defies court BBC, 26 June 2000
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997) pp. 126, 103
  5. ↑ Ali Akbar Mohtashemi explaing story of assassination attempt and how he lost his hand. Iran Negah
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? Oxford University Press,(1992) pp. 146-151
  9. ↑ Independent, 23 October 1991
  10. ↑ Roger Faligot and Remi Kauffer, Les Maitres Espions, (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1994) pp. 412–13
  11. ↑ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997) pp. 89–90
  12. ↑ Wright, Sacred Rage, (2001), p. 88
  13. ↑ sometime after 17 August
  14. ↑ Nassif Hitti, "Lebanon in Iran's Foreign Policy: Opportunities and Constraints," in Hosshang Amirahmadi and Nader Entessar Iran and the Modern World, Macmillan, (1993), p. 188
  15. ↑ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997) p. 104
  16. ↑ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997), p. 106
  17. ↑ Foreign Report, 20 June 1985
  18. ↑ New York Times, 2 November 1983; and 5 October 1984
  19. ↑ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah, (1997), p. 146
  20. ↑ "Iran opens 'largest' conference on Palestinian intifada"
  21. ↑ "Reformist newspaper closed in Iran", BBC News, 25 June 2000
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Wright, Sacred Rage, (2001), p. 89

Bibliography

  • Ranstorp, Magnus, Hizb'allah in Lebanon : The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis, New York, St. Martins Press, 1997
  • Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, 2001

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Interior minister of Iran
1985–1989		 Succeeded by
Abdollah Nouri
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of Association of Combatant Clerics
2010–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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