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Khamenei Advisor, Presidential Candidate Dehghan Reassures Iranians against Fears of Militarism

President Hassan Rouhani awards former Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan a medal for his role in nuclear deal negotiations, February 2016. (Iranian Presidency)
President Hassan Rouhani awards former Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan a medal for his role in nuclear deal negotiations, February 2016. (Iranian Presidency)
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Khamenei Advisor, Presidential Candidate Dehghan Reassures Iranians against Fears of Militarism

President Hassan Rouhani awards former Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan a medal for his role in nuclear deal negotiations, February 2016. (Iranian Presidency)
President Hassan Rouhani awards former Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan a medal for his role in nuclear deal negotiations, February 2016. (Iranian Presidency)

Hossein Dehghan, a military advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is running for presidency in the cleric-led country, is lobbying against suggestions that the next president should not be drawn from the military.

In an interview with ISNA news agency this week, Dehghan asserted that there is no reason to exclude Revolutionary Guard or other military candidates from the race.

“The law does not prohibit a military person from running in elections,” he told ISNA, stressing that the civil rights of military personnel include voting and competing in the ballot.

Dehghan urged voters not to allow “fear” to influence their choice, explaining that the next president should be elected based on “merit” and how they fit the aspirations of the Iranian society.

Dehghan was the first to announce his presidential bid on November 25.

Dehghan, a former Revolutionary Guard air force brigadier general who served as President Hassan Rouhani's defense minister between 2013 and 2017, argued that “practicing politics is not exclusive to certain individuals.”

Responding to fears of military rule taking over the nation, Dehghan said that imposing martial law in Iran was not possible.

As for Iran’s political landscape, Dehghan said he does not believe in currently established parties.

“There are no political parties in the full sense of the word,” he noted.

During his time as defense minister, Dehghan worked hard to project the image of a moderate and technocratic military leader. He played a role in quelling tensions between Rouhani and hardliners who opposed the Iran nuclear deal.

Prominent Guard members are lining up for this summer's presidential election.

Slotted for June 18, this year’s presidential race is critical for many reasons. The vote will truly test the regime in Iran, where voter turnout for parliamentary elections in 2020 plummeted to a record low.

Authorities in Iran are highly concerned with the widening gap between Iranians and the ruling establishment, especially after popular protests against the deteriorating living conditions having erupted nationwide in 2017.

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Russia Says it Detained Suspect over Murder of Top General in Moscow

Investigators stand at the site where Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
Investigators stand at the site where Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
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Russia Says it Detained Suspect over Murder of Top General in Moscow

Investigators stand at the site where Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
Investigators stand at the site where Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, were killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)

Russia said on Wednesday it had detained a citizen of Uzbekistan who had confessed to planting and detonating a bomb which killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov in Moscow a day earlier on the instructions of Ukraine's security service.
Kirillov, who was chief of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside his apartment building along with his assistant when a bomb hidden in an electric scooter went off.
He was the most senior Russian military officer to be assassinated inside Russia by Ukraine. Ukraine's SBU intelligence service, which accused Kirillov of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, something Moscow denies, took responsibility for the killing.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement on Wednesday that the unnamed suspect had told them he had come to Moscow to carry out an assignment for Ukraine's intelligence services.
In a video of the confession published by the Baza news outlet, which is known to have sources in Russian law enforcement circles, the suspect is seen sitting in a van describing his actions.
It was not clear what conditions he was speaking in and Reuters could not immediately verify the video's authenticity.
Dressed in a winter coat, the suspect is shown saying he had come to Moscow at the orders of Ukraine's intelligence services, bought an electric scooter, and then received an improvised explosive device to carry out the hit months later.
He describes how he had placed the device on the electric scooter which he had parked outside the entrance of the apartment block where Kirillov lived.
Investigators cited him as saying that he had set up a surveillance camera in a hire car nearby and that the organizers of the assassination, who he was cited as saying had been based in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, had used the camera to watch what was going on.
In the video, the suspect, who was born in 1995, is shown saying that he had remotely detonated the device once Kirillov had left the building.
He says Ukraine had offered him $100,000 for his role in the murder and residency in a European country.
Investigators said they were identifying other people involved in the hit and the daily Kommersant newspaper reported that one other suspect had been detained. Reuters could not independently confirm that.