Ayatollah Shahroudi named new head of Expediency Council

Leader of the Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Sayyed Imam Ali Khamenei has appointed Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as the new chairman of Iran’s arbitration body, the Expediency Council.  

Ayatollah Shahroudi replaces Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who passed away in January after a 27-year stint on the council, which mediates over differences between the Parliament and the oversight Guardian Council on some laws.

Ayatollah Shahroudi will be taking over from Ayatollah Ali Movahhedi Kermani, who was appointed as the body’s acting chairman following Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s passing.

In his decree issued on Monday, the Leader praised Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who was also Iran’s president for two consecutive terms starting in 1989, describing him as one of the Islamic Republic’s “political pillars.”

Leader of the Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Sayyed Imam Ali Khamenei said changes are essential in the “structure” and “content” of the Expediency Council, calling for a revision of the body’s general policies, and the way they are implemented.

The Leader further called for the establishment of a mechanism for evaluating the efficiency of the body and its policies, beside “creating full coherence in the organizational and managerial structure,” bringing about structural agility and removing parallel and redundant divisions of the council.

Leader of the Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Sayyed Imam Ali Khamenei also reinstated Mohsen Rezaei (seen below) as the secretary of the Expediency Council.

Other members of the council include Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, the former head of the Inspection Bureau at the Leader’s Office, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Eje’i, the deputy chief justice of Iran, and Seyyed Ebrahim Raeesi, the current custodian of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH) in the northeastern city of Mashhad.