Supreme Leader: Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Responsibilities: In charge of all critical domestic and foreign policy decisions. Appoints leaders of judiciary, state media, and half of the Council of Guardians. Controls military and intelligence apparatus and is the only person empowered to declare war.
Council of Guardians
Chairman: Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati Massah
Responsibilities: 12-member (6 clerics, 6 lawyers) highly influential body nominated by the Supreme Leader and the judiciary, whose nominees are approved by parliament. The council has veto power on all bills passed by parliament, as well as all candidates for parliament, and the presidency.
Expediency Discernment Council
Chairman: Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Responsibilities: Policy advisers to the Supreme Leader and mediators of Guardian Council-parliament legislative disputes. Includes heads of judiciary, legislative, and executive branches, clerics of the Guardian Council, and other members appointed by the Supreme Leader.
President: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Responsibilities: Sets economic policy, organizes the cabinet, selects government policies to be considered in parliament. In government matters such as military and intelligence policy, has only nominal power.
Supreme National Security Council
Secretary: Ali Ardashir Larijani
Responsibilities: Body that determines and coordinates specific national security policies within the Supreme Leader’s general framework. It has the lead on the nuclear issue, but its decisions must be ratified by the Supreme Leader. The council is composed of legislative, judiciary, executive, military, and appointed leaders. The secretary is chosen by the president.
Ambassador to Iraq: Hasan Kazemi Qomi
Responsibilities: Assisting with reconstruction and representing the Islamic Republic’s interests in high-level meetings with both Iraqi and American diplomats. Ambassador Qomi is the first Iranian Ambassador to Iraq in 20 years, and his presence signals an expanded role for Iran in Iraq.
August 13, 2007
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- 12/02/11
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- 12/02/11
- Terms Of Disengagement —
Setting the Record Straight
Determined to Reach a Common Objective
“We knew at the outset that the task would be difficult. We acknowledged that publicly and privately. We knew this would be a road with many bumps— and there have been many bumps—and that continues to this day. But we are not deterred. We are, to the contrary, determined more than ever to proceed to realize the common objective, which we all share, of a Middle East that is at peace with security and prosperity for the people of Israel, for Palestinians, and for all the people in the region. We will continue our efforts in that regard, undeterred and undaunted by the difficulties, the complexities or the bumps in the road.”—George Mitchell, special envoy for Middle East peace, remarks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, September 29, 2010Middle East Analysis
- Don’t Panic. Yet —Issandr El Amrani (The Arabist)
- The Islamists vs. The Markets: Egypt’s Election Analyzed —Haroon Moghul (Religion Dispatches)
- What the Libya Intervention Achieved —Marc Lynch (Foreign Policy)
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