Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei (born 16 November 1960) is an Iranian conservative politician and former intelligence officer.

Mashaei was born on 16 November 1960 in Katalom, Ramsar.

He holds a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering from Isfahan University of Technology.

"a 'Freemason,' a 'foreign spy' and a 'heretic.' They accuse Mashaei of plotting to oust the generation of clerics who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution and of promoting direct relations with God, instead of through clerical intermediaries. He and his allies, they say, are part of a 'deviant' current."

Mashaei also made public statements which some considered pro-Israel, when he said that Iranians are "friends of all people in the world—even Israelis", and that any conflict or disagreement was with the Israeli government only.

In another occasion he said: "No nation in the world is our enemy, Iran is a friend of the nation in the United States and in Israel, and this is an honor."

He received criticisms from clerics and conservative members of the Iranian Parliament and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who called the comments about Israelis "illogical".

However, his comments received some cautious backing from Ahmedinejad.

However, Mashaei has also said that if Israel attacked Iran, Iran could destroy it within a week.

Mashei started his career at the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence unit where he joined in 1981.

In 1984, during the Iran–Iraq War, Mashaei joined the intelligence ministry in Kurdistan province and founded the Guards's intelligence branch in the province.

There he met Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then governor of the northwestern city of Khoy.

The two men developed a close friendship and Mashaei is described as the Ahmadinejad's "comrade" during that time.

Then, Mashei was named member of the local security council of the West Azerbaijan province.

In 1986, Mashei was appointed director of a department at the intelligence ministry.

From 1993 to 1997, he served as head of the social affairs department of the interior ministry under then president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

He left office when Mohammad Khatami was elected president in 1997 and began to serve for the state radio.

Next, he joined Tehran's cultural-artistic affairs organization in 2003 when Ahmedinejad was elected mayor of the city.

After Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005, Mashaei became an influential member of the cabinet.

He was appointed on 31 December 2007 to run the newly founded National Center for Research on Globalization.

He is a former head of the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran, and previously served briefly as a deputy interior minister.

As a senior Cabinet member in the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he served as Chief of Staff from 2009 to 2013, and served as the fourth first vice president of Iran for one week in 2009 until his resignation was ordered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A close ally of President Ahmadinejad, Mashaei was viewed by many Iranian clerics as an anti-establishment activist and secular-oriented nationalist.

He has been criticized by religious conservatives for alleged "deviant tendencies," such as elevating Iranian heritage and nationalism above Islam as well as for statements he has made criticizing the Assembly of Experts and the theocratic doctrine of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists, and advocating for the clergy to remove themselves from the political establishment.

He has also been called a pragmatic, moderate conservative with "liberal views on cultural and social issues."

After resigning from vice presidency in 2009, Mashaei was appointed chief of staff to the Presidential Office and an adviser to the President, Ahmedinejad.

According to The New York Times journalist Thomas Erdbrink, "leading ayatollahs and commanders" have called Mashaei

In a 20 May 2010 statement his exact words were "Zionists will have no longer than a week to live".

On 6 August 2010, Mashaei again drew protests from Iran's conservative establishment after speaking at a meeting with Iranian expatriates.

He said that the ideology of Iran, rather than Iran's state religion of Shia Islam, should be promoted to the world.

He also asserted that the country only acknowledged the "pure Islam implemented in Iran and not how Islam is interpreted in and by other countries".

He claimed that without Iran, Islam would be lost and other Islamic countries feared Iran due to Iran having the only "truthful" version of Islam.

Iran's armed forces joint chief of staff, General Hassan Firouzabadi, said Mashaei's comments were a "crime against national security" and were divisive against the rest of the Muslim world.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said that "equating the school of Iran and the school of Islam amounts to pagan nationalism, which the people of Iran have never accepted."

Hardline cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, condemned Mashaei for having "once again made erroneous and inappropriate statements".

Ahmadinejad, who also spoke at the meeting, defended Mashaei by saying "the atmosphere of criticism is a necessity and nobody should be condemned for voicing his viewpoints and not every difference of opinion should lead to a fight. ... what Mashaei wanted to say was that Iran is a country with culture and civilization and accordingly chose Islam as its ideology."

Despite the amount of protest and criticism, Mashaei has never retracted any of his statements.

On 11 May 2013, with the public support and endorsement of outgoing President Ahmadinejad, Mashaei announced that he would run for the presidency in the upcoming election.

However, his application to run was disqualified by the Guardian Council, which must approve all potential candidates, as well as the final election results.

Ahmadinejad protested the disqualification and referred to the Guardian Council's decision as an act of "oppression."