Iran ousts top security guard tainted by espionage scandal

Iran on Monday ousted its top national security official, one of the country’s most powerful men, after coming under scrutiny for his close ties to a senior British spy.

The security official, Ali Shamkhani, had been secretary of the Supreme National Council, which shapes Iran’s security and foreign policy, for ten years and previously worked at the Defense Ministry. The spy, Alireza Akbari, a dual British citizen, was Mr. Shamkhani’s deputy in the ministry and then served as an advisor to him on the council.

In 2019, as suspicions arose over Mr Akbari, Mr Shamkhani lured him back to Iran from Britain where he had moved, leading to his arrest and execution in January.

Mr Shamkhani not only appeared to have survived but thrived after the scandal until his sudden impeachment on Monday. In March, he led Iran’s negotiations to restore ties with Saudi Arabia, brokered by China, and also acted as a diplomat traveling to neighboring Arab countries in the Persian Gulf to strengthen trade and political ties.

But on Monday, the Islamic Republic once again demonstrated that even its most loyal servants are not immune from being removed from power. In a decree, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Shamkhani from his position and thanked him for his services. He replaced him with a senior Revolutionary Guard naval commander with little experience in civilian politics.

Last June, Iran also ousted the head of the Guards intelligence unit, Hossein Taeb, after a series of covert attacks and assassinations in Iran linked to Israel suggested that Iranian intelligence circles had been compromised.

Iranian analysts said a number of controversies contributed to Mr Shamkhani’s impeachment.

He was charged with corruption amid allegations that his family was raking in millions of dollars through an oil shipping company to help Iran evade sanctions. He was also blamed for the breakdown of talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

The council was also criticized for its handling of domestic unrest during the months-long uprising demanding the ouster of ruling clerics, with the majority of Iranians seeing Mr Shamkhani as complicit in the violent crackdown that left hundreds of protesters dead – and with government supporters criticizing his leadership as not being harsh enough.

Apart from that, the hardline that now controls parliament and the presidency saw him as too close to the previous administrations, which were centrist and reformist, and therefore did not trust him.

“There was pressure on Mr Khamenei from the hardline and public opinion to remove Mr Shamkhani,” Gheis Ghoreishi, a political analyst close to the government, said in a telephone interview from Iran. “He resisted for a while, but the lobbying got too loud.”

In announcing the resignation, Mr. Khamenei said that he was appointing Mr. Shamkhani as a member of the Expediency Council, which largely advises the Supreme Leader. The appointment is considered largely ceremonial; in recent years, other officials who had fallen out with Mr Khamenei, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have also been appointed to the council to save face.

Mr Shamkhani’s ability to weather the storm of the espionage scandal for so long may have been the result of an agreement between Mr Khamenei and Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, analysts said.

“There was a give and take deal between President Raisi’s government and the Supreme Leader to allow Mr. Shamkhani to redeem his public position after the Akbari scandal with the Saudi deal,” said a political analyst, Sasan Karimi , in an interview from Tehran.

In a separate decree on Monday, Mr Khamenei gave the Supreme National Council post to General Ali Akbar Ahmadian, 62, a former deputy commander in chief of the Guards naval unit and a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. He was described by the Iranian media as a top military strategist who was also responsible for coordinating the Guard’s forces.

While Khamenei always has the final say on important state policies, from negotiations with the United States to the domestic uprising against the ruling clerics, the role of the national security adviser is influential, analysts say. General Ahmadian does not have much experience in foreign policy or national security issues.

“Shamkhani’s successor has no experience working with anyone outside the military,” said Ali Vaez, Iran’s director of the Crisis Group. “It’s a steep learning curve. There may be a reset or delay on key issues such as the future of the nuclear deal, detainee negotiations with the US and regional diplomacy.”