Hezbollah’s Man in Iran Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour Has Enemies In Iran

By most measures, Hezbollah’s Man in Iran Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour should be a hero — yet he now faces some severe critics and staunch enemies there. Why?

In a must-read piece on RealClearWorld, Meir Javedanfar, RCW’s Iranian-Israeli Middle East analyst and a regular contributor to RealClearWorld and co-author of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran, says its due to a factor that underscores the complexities of modern Iran:

Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour is, after all, the Iranian who established Hezbollah in Lebanon. The first man who tried and failed was Mostafa Chamran…..In 1982, Mohtashamipour succeeded where Chamran had failed by convincing the new Hezbollah movement to accept Ayatollah Khomeini’s religious authority. The rest, as they say, is history.

You would be forgiven for thinking that Mohtashamipour is treated like a hero in Iran, but the reality is quite different. Many conservatives hate him; despite the fact that he created what many believe is Islamic Iran’s most successful political and military ally in the Middle East. The reason is simple: he is a reformist.

On many occasions, security guards have had to ward off physical attacks against him by neo-conservative students and Basijis who have no problem declaring their undying love and appreciation for Hezbollah. Yet they can’t stand Mohtashamipour, because he wants reform within the system. On one occasion in the mid-90′s, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the governor of the Ardebil province, Mohtashamipour had to be pulled away from a mob of ultra-religious students by the the future Iranian president. Mohtashamipour took refuge at Ahmadinejad’s house until the next day, when he was able to return to Tehran.

The recent unrest in Iran has made life more difficult for Mohtashamipour. During a recent visit to Damascus, he was shadowed and harassed. Not by the Mossad or the CIA, but by allies of Ahmadinejad. He was not left alone, even when he visited the Sayyida Zeinab shrine. At one point he was even told “you wouldn’t dare return to Iran” by the operatives shadowing him around the city.

The treatment of Mohtashamipour provides the West with a strong indication of the roots of Iran’s current erratic behavior. When the Iranian founder of Hezbollah is treated this way because he disagrees with Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, others who stand in their way have much more to worry about.