Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi

Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi
Vice Minister of Interior for Political Affairs
In office
27 September 2006[1] – 25 August 2007[2]
PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad
MinisterMostafa Pourmohammadi
Preceded byAli Jannati
Succeeded byAlireza Afshar
Senior Aide to the President of Iran
In office
17 June 2009 – 3 August 2013
PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad
Preceded byposition created
Succeeded byHesamodin Ashna
Top Advisor to the President of Iran
In office
August 2005 – 14 April 2009[3]
PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad
Preceded byMir-Hossein Mousavi
In office
2009 – 3 August 2013
Succeeded byAkbar Torkan
33rd Mayor of Sanandaj
In office
4 February 1988 – 21 January 1989[4]
MinisterAli Akbar Mohtashamipur
Governor-generalAlireza Tabesh
Preceded byMorteza Zarrin-gol
Succeeded byMousa Moradiani
Personal details
BornKerman, Iran
Political partyAlliance of Builders of Islamic Iran
SpouseGhasri Zarghami Sabet[5]
Children3
RelativesMohammad-Javad Bahonar (uncle)
Mohammad-Reza Bahonar (uncle)[6]
Alma materIran University of Science and Technology[7]
ProfessionPolitician
Cabinet9th Government
10th Government

Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi is an Iranian politician. He was a "senior adviser" to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and deputy interior minister for political affairs.[8] He is said to have "strong ties to the Revolutionary Guard Corps and to the intelligence services" and to be "a constant presence at the president's side, in every cabinet meeting and during midday prayers at the office..." and acting "more as a cross between Iran's Karl Rove and a [American] president's chief of staff."[9]

He studied with Ahmadinejad at the Iran University of Science and Technology in the late 1970s, and like Ahmadinejad, he is a dedicated student of "ultra-conservative" cleric Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi. Later on, thanks to their friendship, Ahmadinejad received his first official job, as the mayor of Maku and Khoy, near the border with Turkey. Reportedly, Samareh's connections with the Basij enabled Ahmadinejad to establish relations with that group and with the Revolutionary Guard Corps.[10]

Prior to his role as adviser he was sponsored by Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi for, and quickly appointed to, a critical job, director of placements, at the Foreign Ministry of Iran, in the early 1990s. In September 2006 he flew to Paris to deliver a private message to President Jacques Chirac from president Ahmadinejad. Very shortly afterward, he was appointed deputy interior minister for political affairs, (though he continued his full-time duties as senior adviser). In October 2006 he was "appointed head of the election commission, supervisor of the poll for the Assembly of Experts." Despite his close association with Mesbah-Yazdi, that cleric did not do well in the election and only came in sixth-place finish in the Tehran municipality, "barely squeezing into his seat in the Assembly". Samareh Hashemi resigning from the election commission a "few months later in the summer of 2007."[11]

  1. ^ "هاشمی ثمره معاون سیاسی وزیر کشور شد" (in Persian). Alef. 26 September 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  2. ^ "فرمانده سابق بسیج، معاون سیاسی وزیر کشور شد" (in Persian). BBC Persian. 26 August 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  3. ^ "مجتبی ثمره هاشمی استعفا داد" (in Persian). Alef. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  4. ^ "شهرداران اسبق" (in Persian). Sanandaj Municipality. 1 June 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  5. ^ Off to New York
  6. ^ "Right's new leaders". Archived from the original on 2011-06-23. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  7. ^ Ahmadinejad's messianic connections
  8. ^ "Media, Parties Should Regulate Electoral Scene". Iran Daily - National. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  9. ^ Majd, Hooman, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ : The Paradox of Modern Iran, by Hooman Majd, Doubleday, 2008, p.45-6
  10. ^ Ahmadinejad's messianic connections, Meir Javedanfar, The Guardian, 6 May 2009, accessed 15-July-2009
  11. ^ Majd, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, (2008), p.49–50