Dismissal of the Commander of 'Imam Sadiq Brigade' Following Controversial Gathering at Qom Seminary

About 50 days after a controversial gathering at the Qom seminary and protests from several religious authorities against it, Hossein Tayebi Far, the commander of the 'Imam Sadiq Brigade', was dismissed from his position and appointed as the deputy for religious affairs in the IRGC. According to reports from the Qom seminary news agency, Ezzatollah Mo'tamed has been introduced as the new commander of this brigade, with the farewell and introduction ceremony held on Tuesday, October 1. Mr. Mo'tamed had previously served as the commander of this brigade for a period. Hossein Tayebi Far, the former commander of the 'Imam Sadiq Brigade', was one of the two speakers at the controversial gathering at the Qom seminary on August 16, where an image of a slogan threatening Hassan Rouhani with the fate of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani made headlines. In this image, a seminary student held a placard with the slogan: 'O you who advocate negotiation, the Farah pool awaits you.' This threatening message actually referred to the death of Akbar Hashemi, the former head of the Expediency Council, on January 8, 2017, which his conservative critics claim occurred while he was swimming in a pool. The Iran newspaper reported that the 'Imam Sadiq Brigade' was one of the two organizers of this gathering. However, following protests from Nasir Makarem Shirazi and Hossein Noori Hamadani, two religious authorities, and the Society of Teachers of Qom Seminary, the IRGC denied the role of its forces in organizing the gathering. According to reports, the 'Imam Sadiq Brigade' has played a role in suppressing prominent clerics critical of the government during the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some critical religious authorities, including Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri and Ayatollah Ahmad Azari Qomi, have spoken about the role of this brigade's forces in attacks on their offices and homes. Ayatollah Montazeri, in a famous speech that led to his house arrest, stated that he had sent a message to Ayatollah Khamenei, saying, 'What right does this brigade have to come to Qom and disrupt the seminary?' Ayatollah Ahmad Azari Qomi, also a critic of Ayatollah Khamenei, wrote in a letter to the head of the Special Clerical Court after pressure groups attacked his home in 1997: 'My house is ready to be destroyed, and my chest is ready for the bayonets of Brigade 83 and the intelligence and thugs of the people (if it is not slander).' The Special Clerical Court of Qom announced on September 13 that following a 'complaint' from the legal deputy of the presidency against participants in the protest at the Feyziyeh School, five individuals have been summoned. Ezzatollah Zarghami, the former head of state television, wrote on Twitter that these clerics met with him on September 22. Besides the controversial placard issue, the remarks of Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, a member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council at this gathering, also drew criticism from several religious authorities. He stated: 'Higher education classes are being held that instead of theorizing religious civilization, they are creating secular jurisprudence and do not speak about banks and social relations.' Following criticisms of these remarks, the Tasnim news agency, close to the IRGC, published interviews with some principlist clerics who defended Rahimpour Azghadi, stating: 'It would have been better if the criticism had been presented in more appropriate language.'