Like President Ahmadinejad, the 46-year-old Oil Minister-designate, Seyed Sadegh Mahsouli, has spent much of his career in the Islamic Republics military and security apparatus. He was for some time the chief of staff of Mohsen Rezai, when the latter was the Commandant of the IRGC.
In a government where many senior officials are in-laws, Mahsouli is the brother-in-law of Ali-Akbar Velayati, the former Foreign Minister who is now the chief foreign policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the 1980s, Mahsouli commanded the IRGCs Fifth Military District, which covered Irans densely-populated northwest, and the strategically-located provinces of East and West Azerbaijan. Under his command, the Revolutionary Guards put down many anti-government protests in the two provinces, which have a history of strong political activism.
Mahsouli was for some time the commander of the IRGCs Sixth Special Division, an elite force whose units were ferried to trouble spots to deal with unrest and anti-government protests.
He has also served as a Deputy Defence Minister for military planning.
The hard-line-dominated Majlis is widely expected to approve Mahsouli, a close ally of President Ahmadinejad, who was himself a senior commander in the IRGC. The elite military force is loyal and answerable only to the Islamic Republics Supreme Leader.
Despite his impeccable revolutionary credentials, Mahsoulis experience in the oil sector is virtually non-existent.
This appointment is about one thing, and nothing else, Morteza Amjadi, an Iranian financial expert based in the Persian Gulf city of Dubai, said in a telephone interview. The Revolutionary Guards are taking control of the Oil Ministry and the so-called Oil Mafia. Its another bad news for Rafsanjani.
Amjadi was referring to Irans former President Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose sons, close relatives, and political protégés have been in control of the Oil Ministry and the shadowy network of privately-owned companies working in Irans petroleum sector. Iranians widely refer to the network as the Oil Mafia.
Simon Bailey of the London-based Gulf Intelligence Monitor agreed.
With Khameneis blessing, the IRGC has been aggressively increasing its political and economic clout in Iran since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, Bailey said. The Supreme National Security Council, the cabinet, the IRIB [Irans state-run broadcasting corporation”> and many other key institutions are now dominated by the Revolutionary Guards.
The IRGC has been extending its economic empire for some time, as the dispute over the Turkcell contract showed, Bailey said, referring to the IRGCs successful fight with the Ministry of Telecommunications that eventually led to the ousting of the Turkish company from Irans mobile telephone market.
If the Guards come to dominate the Oil Ministry, this will have potentially significant consequences. There are billions of dollars at stake, the Dubai-based Amjadi said.
Ahmadinejad had vowed prior to the elections earlier this year that, when in power, he would clean up the Oil Mafia in Iran. He left little doubt that he was targeting Rafsanjanis control of the oil sector.
Iran ranks second in oil production among the OPEC states, accounting for some 80 percent of the countrys export revenues.
