We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
We continue the program with looking at the reasons behind Khamenei appointingHossein Salami as the new commander of the Revolutionary Guards, replacing Mohammad Ali Jafari.
When Khamenei first appointed Jafari, he replaced Rahim Safavi who had fallen out of favor by Khamenei. Nevertheless, he is still his “military advisor”, while Jafari has never looked like a military commander.
Salami was a university student at the time of the revolution and later joined theMujaheddin of Islamic Revolution.
His anti-American rhetoric is the only part of his checked character that Khamenei likes, as he has repeatedly threatened Israel with annihilation and loves appearing at the site of missiles tests.
As a former commander of the Guards Air Force his tenor ended when he became the face of the Revolutionary Guard involved in the crackdown on the Green Movement.
He has now become the commander of a force that has been named as a terrorist organisation and one wonders what else can he do that Jafari could not?
It is known that Jafari had a better relationship with the rank and file of the Guards and his staged sympathy with the flood victims had made him a target for some reaction from the Khamenei’s camp.
Many people had suggested that when Jafari’s term comes to an end, he will be replaced by Ghassem Soleimani. But I have said this many times before that Khamenei is scared of Soleimani and his powerbase and would never allow this to happen.
For Khamenei however, neither Iran’s independence nor the future of our people matters.
All he is interested in is to have a larger mausoleum than that of Khomeini and his sons will inherit his position.