Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani—The former president has chaired this body ever since it was created under his presidency. It is his political savvy as well as Khamenehi’s broad appointments that have given the Council unique status—at least until 2009. A clergyman.
Abbas Vaez-Tabasi—One of the least known but most powerful figures in Iran, he has long run the powerful and very wealthy Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the only burial site in Iran of any of the 12 Imams. Unlike most of the other members of the EC, he has never held a major government post other than membership on the EC and Assembly of Experts. He is reported to be in ill-health and may even be near death. A clergyman.
Ebrahim Amini-Najafabadi—Now 85 years old, he was the deputy speaker of the Assembly of Experts from Chahar Mahal when he was first named to the EC. A clergyman.
Mohammad-Ali Movahedi-Kermani—Once a deputy speaker of the Majlis, he was for a long time the Supreme Leader’s representative to the Pasdaran. He also serves in the Assembly of Experts. When he ran for the Majlis, he was double-endorsed by both reformers and conservatives. A clergyman.
Hassan Habibi—First vice president when Rafsanjani was president and during the first term of President Khatami, Habibi was generally viewed as an intelligent and strong administrator. He has not held any office apart from the EC since leaving the vice presidency. He wrote the first draft of the post-revolution Constitution. But his first version did not include he position of a clerical Supreme Leader. A layman.
Ali-Akbar Velayati—Foreign minister for 16 years under Prime Minister Musavi and President Rafsanjani, he appeared quite perturbed when he was dumped by President Khatami. Since then, he has served as foreign policy adviser to the Supreme Leader. After 2006, he became much more visible and started traveling on missions abroad for the first time since leaving the Foreign Ministry. By training, he is a physician with a degree in pediatrics from Johns Hopkins University. A layman.
Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi—He was minister of intelligence in the 1990s at the time of the “serial murders” of several journalists and opposition politicians by members of his staff. A clergyman.
Hassan Sanei—He is the long-time head of the 15th of Khordad Foundation, which is best known for offering a bounty for the killing of Salman Rushdie. Also a member of the body that oversees Friday prayer leaders. A clergyman.
Hassan Rohani—He was for a long-time elected to Majlis with endorsements from both the right and the left, but he is now seen as a reformist and is disdained by the right. He was deputy speaker of the Majlis in the 1990s as well as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). He drew major public attention when as secretary of the SNSC he took on the nuclear portfolio. But President Ahmadi-nejad took that away from him. Rohani still serves on the SNSC as one of the two representatives of the Supreme Leader—the other is Ali Larijani. A clergyman.
Habibollah Asgar-Oladi—He is the head of the Islamic Coalition Association, one of the oldest conservative parties. Asgar-Oladi and the party are very close to the Bazaar. He is best known, however, as a major figure in the 1964 assassination of Prime Minister Hassan-Ali Mansour. A layman.
Ali Larijani—He became minister of culture and Islamic guidance under President Rafsanjani when Mohammad Khatami resigned that post. He drew wide public attention—and ridicule—as the director of dull and boring state broadcasting in the 1990s. But he became very popular with conservatives. In 2005, he ran for president. Most of the traditional conservatives backed his candidacy. But he drew little public support, coming in sixth in a seven-man field with just 5.9 percent of the vote. Ahmadi-nejad made him secretary of the SNSC and handed him the nuclear portfolio. A layman, he holds a masters and a doctorate in Western philosophy from the University of Tehran.
Mohammad-Reza Bahonar—Majlis deputy from Kerman, he was the first deputy speaker of the Majlis. He is one of leading lights of the conservatives and considered brilliant even by reformers. He advocates a free economy, but is a hard liner on political and cultural matters. He is the brother of Mohammad Javad Bahonar, the prime minister who was assassinated in 1981. A layman.
Majid Ansari—He ran Iran’s prison system in the late 1980s. He was a long-time reformist member of the Majlis until being defeated in the 2004 elections. He was brought into President Khatami’s cabinet as one of the vice presidents. With Rohani, he is one of the few certifiable reformers left on the EC. A cleric.
Mostafa Mir-Salim—He was Iran’s first chief of police after the revolution. Later he became minister of culture under President Rafsanjani and in that role tightly limited the issuance of newspaper publishing licenses. A layman.
Morteza Nabavi—Long the editor of the conservative daily Resalat, once served in the Majlis as a leader of the conservative faction. A layman.
Ali-Akbar Nateq-Nuri— Speaker of the Majlis while Rafsanjani was president, he was the officially anointed candidate to succeed Rafsanjani in 1997—but was steamrollered by the candidacy of Mohammad Khatami. Although tagged as a conservative, he signaled during that election season that he wanted to do something to lessen frictions with the United States. A clergyman.
Hassan Firuzabadi—The only serving military officer on the EC until now, he is the chief of staff of the armed forces, appointed by and reporting to the Supreme Leader. While other officers come and go, he has held that post since 1989. He rarely gives speeches. He is also probably the fattest general in the world. By training, he is a veterinarian. He holds the rank of major (two-star) general, the highest rank in the Iranian military.
Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh—Respected and talented, he has held two of the most important positions in the government. Under President Rafsanjani, he was oil minister. Khatami named him a vice president in charge of the Atomic Energy program and Ahmadi-nejad kept him in that position for a few years. A layman.
Mohsen Rezai—Commander of the Pasdaran for 16 years from 1981 to 1997, he surprised everyone when he retired just after Rafsanjani left the presidency and followed Rafsanjani to the Expediency Council, of which Rezai became the full-time secretary. He was only 27 when he was named to lead the Pasdaran. One of his five children defected to he United States, but later returned to the family fold and subsequently committed suicide. A layman.
Hossain Muzaffar—A minister of education under Rafsanjani and in the first Khatami cabinet, little is known of his other activities. A layman.
Mohammad-Reza Aref—Chancellor of the University of Tehran in the early 1990s, President Khatami named him minister of post, telephone and telegraph. He was promoted in Khatami’s second term to first vice president, the position from which the government is generally managed on a day-to-day basis. He has a reputation as a solid manager. A layman, he has doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Mohammad-Javad Iravani—An unimpressive economics minister from 1985 to 1989 when Khamenehi was president and Mir-Hossain Musavi was prime minister, he campaigned hard against Iranian membership in the World Trade Organization. He was later a deputy agriculture minister and ambassador to Qatar. A layman.
Parviz Davudi—He was first named to the EC in 2007 when he was Ahmadi-nejad’s first vice president. The first three first vice presidents—the men who run the government on a day-to-day basis—are now on the EC. A layman, he holds a doctorate in economics from Iowa State University.
Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai—He is a controversial character. Once the intelligence minister and now the Tehran prosecutor, he was originally a judge who gained notoriety for trying Tehran Mayor Gholam-Hossain Karbaschi in the 1990s. The trial was televised and the two men sparred daily, with the results generally to Mohseni-Ejai’s disfavor. The reformist journalist Issa Saharkhiz reported that in 2004 he had an argument with Mohseni-Ejai during which Mohseni-Ejai threw a sugar bowl at him and then bit his arm. A clergyman.
Ali Agha-Mohammadi—His appointment to the EC in 2007 was a surprise to many because he did not appear a logical member of the establishment. His main experience in government was as spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council under President Khatami. A clergyman.
Mohammad Foruzandeh—He is a former defense minister who earned a reputation in the military as a first-rate manager. In 1999, he was named to head the Bonyad-e Mostazafin (Foundation of the Oppressed), the largest economic institution in the nation as the owner of many nationalized industries. A layman.
Davud Danesh-Jafari—He was elected to the Majlis in the conservative sweep of 2004. He was chosen as economy minister by Ahmadi-nejad the next year. A layman.
Ahmad Jannati—He has been on the Council of Guardians since it was created three decades ago. And he is one of the clerics who rotates leading Friday prayers in Tehran. He is widely seen as the most extreme member of the establishment. He has been linked directly over the years with organizations of street toughs who have physically assaulted critics of the right. A cleric.
Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi—Born in Iraq of Iranian parents, he did not come to Iran until adulthood after the revolution and is often thought of as more like an Iraqi. He was a co-founder and co-leader of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraqi (SAIRI) and dealt with Iraqi issues more than Iranian ones. But he won plaudits from many reformists for his performance for 10 years as chairman of the Judiciary. Since leaving that post, he has been a member of he Council of Guardians. A cleric.
Mahmud Mohammadi-Araqi—He has long been the head of the Islamic Culture and Communications Organization. A cleric.
Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel—A leading light of the conservative movement, he became speaker of the Majlis in 2004 after the right won the elections. But he was dumped after the 2008 elections as members complained he was too soft to lead the institution. There is talk now that he will be returned to the speakership as the incumbent, Ali Larijani, is criticized by many for being authoritarian. A layman.
Ex-Officio Members
The heads of the three branches of the government:
President, Majlis Speaker and Chairman of Judicial Branch.
The cabinet minister or agency head under whose aegis falls whatever topic is on the EC agenda.
The chair of the Majlis committee with jurisdiction over the issue on the EC agenda.
The six clerical members of the Council of Guardians, and
The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council
They join only when the issue on the agenda is a disagreement between the Majlis and the Council of Guardians.
