Iran: New police intelligence chief appointed

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 28 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed a Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General as the new intelligence chief for the country’s State Security Forces on Sunday.

In a decree Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Mohammad-Kazem Moazzenian as the head of the Intelligence Protection Organisation of the State Security Forces.

Moazzenian replaces Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Ramezani.In July, Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, a veteran paramilitary commander with a reputation for ruthlessness, as the head of the SSF, in a move that was widely regarded as one aiming to place the law enforcement forces under the control of the Revolutionary Guards.

Moghaddam was the number two in the paramilitary Bassij and commander of the force in Greater Tehran. He is among the top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and has also been a long-time ally of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.