The Controversy Surrounding a Dismissal; The Ousted Deputy Minister of Interior Claimed He Had 'Orders from Above'

A few days after the dismissal of the Deputy Minister of Interior, the controversy surrounding this decision continues. Opponents view it as a 'new precedent,' while supporters complain about the delay in the dismissal. One member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, who supported the dismissal, stated that the political deputy of the Minister of Interior was unwilling to comply with the Minister's wishes and claimed, 'I have been ordered from above to stay here.' Ehsan Arakani mentioned the existence of a 'deviant current' within the government and emphasized that 'the Raisi government is a government of friends.' According to this member of parliament, Mohammad Reza Gholamreza, the former political deputy of the Minister of Interior, did not consider himself obligated to comply with his superior and was coordinating with groups outside the Ministry of Interior. He stated, 'This approach is being pursued in many other parts of the government as well.' This comes as Gholamreza reacted to the news of his dismissal by stating: 'Upon observing the insistence of some members of parliament to impeach the Minister and the disregard for the country's critical interests, which had serious repercussions for the order and security of the country, I deemed it inappropriate to continue working and decided to resign.' The newspaper Etemad reacted to this change by writing that the dismissal of the political deputy of the Minister of Interior, aside from the disputes 'between the Stability Front and the New Principlists, reveals an important secret in the Principlist front, which is the strange shift of Raisi's government from the far left of the Principlist front to its right edges.' The Student Basij of 'Greater Tehran Universities' also reacted to the dismissal of the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior by sending a 'protest letter' to the Minister of Interior and holding a rally in front of the Ministry's building. In the 'protest letter,' eight Basij student organizations in Tehran's universities stated that the Minister of Interior should know that with this 'extortion,' he has established a bad precedent that will haunt other powers and institutions until the end of this parliament's term. Mohammad Reza Gholamreza, a commander of the IRGC and Quds Force, was appointed as the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior at the beginning of Ebrahim Raisi's government by Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior, who also has a history of command in the IRGC and Quds Force. The challenge between the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Ministry of Interior began when, on June 1, the letter from the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior was sent to the governors and mayors, prohibiting representatives' involvement 'in executive matters in the final year of the parliament.' This issue became a pretext for increasing criticism of this decision, leading to claims from the Minister of Interior and the Speaker of Parliament that parts of the 'controversial directive' from the Ministry of Interior were revoked. However, this was not the end of the story, as representatives threatened Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior of the Islamic Republic, demanding the dismissal of 'Mohammad Reza Gholamreza,' his political deputy. Although Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, denied this demand, several representatives confirmed it. The response of the Student Basij to the dismissal of the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior included a protest rally and letter-writing. Gholamreza's dismissal was under pressure from the parliament; the governor of Qom became the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior. The pressure from the parliament bore fruit; the political deputy of the Ministry of Interior was dismissed.