The Beginning of 'Hashimi Removal'

Tehran, southern district of Niavaran Park, the Strategic Research Center Tower of the Expediency Discernment Council, on Tuesday, media in Iran reported that most offices on the eighth floor of this building have been sealed. According to a photo published by ILNA news agency, a paper without a signature and without the name of an agent was installed on the doors of the offices, a paper that hours later the family lawyer of the Hashemi family announced was installed by the administrative office of the Expediency Discernment Council. However, this news was denied shortly after, and the administrative office of the Council rejected the attribution to itself and attributed it to the Council's security. The head of the Council's security also stated in an interview with ILNA that: 'We did not issue such an order.' Until Mohammad Hassan Mashkouri, the public relations manager of the Council, told IRNA news agency that the sealing of Mr. Hashemi's advisors' offices is a normal procedure related to all prominent figures, and the reason for it is the preservation of classified documents. Mehdi Mahdavi Azad, a political analyst residing in Germany, commented on the advisors of the former head of the Expediency Discernment Council and their offices: 'All the advisors whose offices have been sealed also had other offices; Mr. Hassan Younesi, as the assistant to the President, is stationed at the Presidential Institution, Abasi-Far also has an office at the central building of Azad University as a special representative, and Yasser Hashemi was mainly based in the office of the Board of Trustees of Azad University.' Nevertheless, according to Mahdavi Azad, these individuals played a role higher than that of an advisor to the Council: 'It is undeniable that these individuals were part of Mr. Hashemi's political cadre and in a way were his close associates and liaisons with parts of the political factions. These individuals were not part of the Council; they were personal advisors and a kind of political arms of Mr. Hashemi, and this makes the issue significant.' An hour before the news of the sealing of the former head's advisors' offices was published, news circulated on social media about the Tehran municipality's order to remove images of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, from the city, an order that according to Reza Alijani, a political analyst in France, is part of the 'Hashimi Removal' operation: 'I think this is a security and political action and generally considered as Hashimi removal, which has occurred over the past two decades after gradual disagreements arose between Mr. Hashemi and Mr. Khamenei, taking place in all institutions; both in the IRGC, in the Ministry of Intelligence, and even recently in the Astan Quds Razavi. And now the last place that Hashimi must be removed from is the Expediency Discernment Council, which is Mr. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's base.' In the days following Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's death, one of the most important side issues raised was the notebook of the former head of the Expediency Discernment Council, a notebook in which he had repeatedly stated he recorded his confidential matters. According to Reza Alijani, the method of keeping it could now become a topic of discussion: 'We saw what a stir a tape of Mr. Montazeri caused; some of Mr. Hashemi's memories could repeat this event.' However, according to a note published by Gholamali Rajei, one of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's advisors on the Entekhab website, last Wednesday, after the memorial ceremony, Fatemeh Hashemi, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter, along with several of his grandchildren, went to the main office of the Expediency Discernment Council and evacuated all his personal belongings from the Council's premises. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed away last Sunday due to what was announced as cardiac arrest at the age of 82.