Ayatollah Khamenei names new head of top arbitration body

Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as the new Chairman of Iran’s arbitration body, the Expediency Council.

According to Press TV, Ayatollah Shahroudi replaces Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who passed away in January after a 27-year stint on the Council.

Ayatollah Shahroudi will be taking over from Ayatollah Ali Movahhedi Kermani, who was appointed as the body’s acting chairman following Ayatollah Rafsanjani's passing away. 

In his decree issued on Monday, the Leader praised Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who was also Iran’s president for two consecutive terms starting in 1989, calling him one of the Islamic Republic's "political pillars.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said changes are essential in the "structure" and "content" of the Expediency Council, calling for a revision of the body's general policies, and the way they are implemented.

The Leader further called for establishing a mechanism for evaluating the efficiency of the body and its policies, beside "creating full coherence in the organizational and managerial structure", bringing about structural agility and removing parallel and redundant divisions of the Council. 

Ayatollah Khamenei also named other members of the Council, reinstating Mohsen Rezaei as the Secretary of the Expediency Council.

Other members of the Council include Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who Heads Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, the former Head of the Inspection Bureau at the Leader’s Office, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Eje’i, the Deputy Chief Justice of Iran, and Seyyed Ebrahim Raeesi, the current Custodian of the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (PBUH) in northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad.

ME