US Citizen is Ahmadinejad’s Advisor
Appointment of Hamid Mowlana as Advisor -

2008.08.25 -Arash Motamed

Once, an editor of Iran’s Hamshahri newspaper wrote that if anyone stopped over at ‎London’s Heathrow airport, he would be held on suspicion of being a spy. Today, Hamid ‎Mowlana who is the director of the International Communications Program at American ‎University in Washington, DC, has stirred up protests among the right-wing allies of ‎Iran’s president Ahmadinejad because he was recently appointed as his advisor.‎‎ ‎Mowlana’s appointment was announced last Wednesday in Iran’s state-run newspaper ‎Jame Jam.‎
Tabnak website, which belongs to Iran’s former Passdaran Revolutionary Guards ‎commander Mohsen Rezai, wrote on the “appointment of an American citizen” to be ‎Ahmadinejad’s advisor, “The appointment of professor Hamid Mowlana, a US citizen ‎and the founder of American University’s International Communication Program has ‎raised questions.”‎
Tabnak continues, “According to article 989 of Iran’s civil code, any Iranian who ‎acquires the nationality of another country without due process, his foreign citizenship is ‎null and void and he will continue to be recognized as an Iranian national, but … he will ‎be deprived of his right to serve at the cabinet ministerial level, as a deputy minister, ‎become a member of the Majlis legislative assembly, become a member of the provincial ‎and town councils, and any other government posts.”‎
The site goes on to say that “a person’s nationality belongs to the state and a person who ‎is a national of a country, enjoys rights and responsibilities thereof, and because of this ‎the relationship between the person and the state is that of legal, spiritual with a political ‎nature. One of the attributes of this relationship between the person and the state is that ‎he enjoys the political support of his nationality state when he is in foreign territory. For ‎example, subservience to US constitution and other laws of the country is a condition for ‎becoming a US citizen.”‎
Tabnak then presents its reasons why for Hamid Mowlana, a US citizen, to be appointed ‎an advisor to Iran’s president Ahmadinejad causes legal issues. For example it quotes the ‎oath of allegiance that all naturalized citizens in the US have to take to become American ‎citizens adding that they pledge to take up arms to defend the US whenever called upon, ‎suggesting that Mowlana has pledged allegiance to another government and state, thus ‎not qualifying to hold public office in Iran.‎
The website also quotes Ahmadinejad to have told the Minister of the Interior and ‎members of the state inspectorate about the qualifications of individuals who wished to ‎run for the eight Majlis, saying, “A person who does not accept the [Iranian] state, and is ‎not sensitive to the country’s national interest and its constitution, is not qualified to ‎become a Majlis member.” These remarks by the president contradict Mowlana’s ‎qualifications to hold public office in Iran because he has pledged to defend the US, and ‎take up arms in its defense if necessary.‎
Hamid Mowlana had said earlier that president Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia ‎University last year when the later was visiting the US to attend a UN meeting was held ‎on his recommendation. Some believe that some topics such as the disintegration of the ‎US and the quoting of informed sources in the US, come from and are references to ‎Mowlana who has made such recommendations to Iran’s president. Some in Iran ‎question the legality of the relationship between Ahmadinejad and Mowlana, who came ‎about a few months ago, and stress that it is illegal and that the president must explain his ‎relationship to the Majlis.‎
Tabnak continues, “A large site has been put at Mowlana’s disposal in the Vanak Circle ‎district of Tehran for him to establish his cultural foundation.”‎
Mowlana has been writing articles in Iran’s state-run newspaper Keyhan for years in ‎which he has been critical of the ideas of liberal democracy and the reformists.‎

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