Ali Shamkhani is an Iranian rear admiral upper half. He served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran from 2013 to 2023. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council and political advisor of Supreme Leader of Iran since May 2023.
Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei is an Iranian Twelver Shia marja' and politician who has served as the second Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's 35-year-long rule makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East,as well as the second-longest-serving Iranian leader of the last century after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Ali Akbar Hashimi Bahramani Rafsanjani was an Iranian politician and writer who served as the fourth president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. One of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic,Rafsanjani was the head of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 until 2011 when he decided not to nominate himself for the post. He was also the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council.
The Expediency Discernment Council of the System is an administrative assembly of Iran appointed by the Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Constitution on 6 February 1988. It was originally set up to resolve differences or conflicts between the Majlis and the Guardian Council,but "its true power lies more in its advisory role to the Supreme Leader." According to Hooman Majd,the Leader "delegated some of his own authority to the council—granting it supervisory powers over all branches of the government" following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election in 2005.
Mehdi Karroubi is an Iranian Shia cleric and reformist politician leading the National Trust Party. Following 2009–2010 Iranian election protests,Karroubi was put under house arrest in February 2011. As of 2021,he is still confined to his house.
Special Clerical Court,or Special Court for Clerics is a special Iranian judicial system for prosecuting crimes,both ordinary and political,committed by Islamic clerics and scholars. The Special Clerical Court can defrock and disbar Islamic jurists,give sentences of imprisonment,corporal punishment,execution,etc. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial framework,with its own security and prison systems,"generally secret and confidential" cases,proceedings and procedures,and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader of Iran,. The most senior Islamic politician to be prosecuted and sentenced to prison since the Iranian Revolution was Abdollah Nouri who was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious dissent by the court in 1999.
Ali Akbar Velayati is an Iranian conservative politician and physician. He is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. Velayati is a distinguished professor at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,senior adviser to the Supreme Leader in international affairs and head of the board of founders and the board of trustees of the Islamic Azad University.
Supreme National Security Council is the national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The current secretary of the Supreme National Security Council is Ali Akbar Ahmadian. He was appointed to position of secretary by President Ebrahim Raisi on 22 May 2023. The council was formed for the protection and support of national interests and Islamic revolution and territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the country. This institution was founded during the 1989 revision of the constitution.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an Iranian principlist and nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. He was known for his hardline views and nuclearisation of Iran. He was also the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran,a coalition of conservative political groups in the country,and served as mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005,reversing many of his predecessor's reforms.
Morteza Alviri is an Iranian politician who served as Mayor of Tehran from 1999 to 2001.
Sadeq Ardeshir Larijani,better known as Amoli Larijani,is an Iranian scholar,conservative politician,and current chairman of Expediency Discernment Council. He is the former and fifth Chief Justice of the judicial system of Iran after the 1979 revolution.
Saeed Jalili is an Iranian hardline principlist politician and diplomat,who was secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2007 to 2013. He is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council,and is the former nuclear negotiator for Iran.
Hassan Rouhani is an Iranian Islamist politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"),academic,former diplomat and Islamic cleric. He served as a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts from 1999 to 2024. He was a member of the Expediency Council from 1991 to 2013,and also was a member of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2021. Rouhani was deputy speaker of the fourth and fifth terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. In the latter capacity,he was the country's top negotiator with the EU three,UK,France,and Germany,on nuclear technology in Iran,and has also served as a Shia mujtahid,and economic trade negotiator.
Ali Bagheri Kani is an Iranian diplomat who is currently acting Minister of Foreign Affairs. Before that he was political deputy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran since September 2021. He is considered to be close to the Principlists and to be part of the inner circle of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List,also known as the SDN List,is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists,officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes,and international criminals. The list is managed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). When individuals are added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN),their U.S. assets are blocked. Moreover,their names are added to automated screening systems used by banks in the United States and many foreign countries,making it difficult for them to open or hold accounts,transfer money,or transact properties internationally. Any individual or entity that provides support related to terrorism,drug trafficking or unauthorized military use to any person or entity appearing on the SDN list risks being penalized under the USA PATRIOT Act.
Sayyid Ebrahim Raisolsadati,better known as Ebrahim Raisi,was an Iranian politician who served as the eighth president of Iran from 2021 until his death in a helicopter crash in 2024. He was a Muslim jurist and part of the Principlist group.
On 8 January 2017,Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,the fourth President of Iran and the country's Chairman of Expediency Discernment Council,died at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack. He was transferred unconscious to a hospital in Tajrish,north Tehran. Attempts at cardiopulmonary resuscitation for more than an hour trying to revive him were unsuccessful and he died at 19:30 local time (UTC+3:30).
Mohammad Mokhber is an Iranian politician who became acting president of Iran after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in the Varzaqan helicopter crash on 19 May 2024. Mokhber was also the 7th First Vice President of Iran from 2021 to 2024. He is also the current member of the Expediency Discernment Council.
Esmaeil Khatib is an Iranian cleric and politician who has been serving as the minister of intelligence since August 2021. He is the eighth official to hold the post.
