The news of a major change in the leadership of Iran's leading ultraconservative party, the Paydari [Steadfastness], with links to former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, first broke on the popular social networking platform Telegram.

It was Telegram channel @poll1400 that covers developments related to Iran's 2021 presidential election that brought the story to its nearly 136,000 subscribers. The channel reported on December 20 that former IRGC officer and ultra-rich politician Sadegh Mahsouli has replaced Morteza Agha Tehrani as the Secretary General of the Paydari Party.

Although the party's leadership has always been associated with the names of its founding father Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi and Agha Tehrani who was former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ethics teacher, Mahsouli has always been the real mover and shaker in the party. He is better known with his nickname "The Godfather of Paydari."

In an odd way, the party was not observed to explain why the former military man and Interior Minister Mahsouli has replaced hardline cleric Aqa Tehrani.

Earlier in December, hardliners who control the Iranian Parliament (Majles) argued that those who hold dual nationality or US Green Cards are suspected as possible infiltrators. Agha Tehrani, despite his ultraconservative credentials as a fundamentalist has been the Imam of a Shiite Mosque in New York for nearly a decade in the 1980s and this could have affected Paydari's position in the upcoming presidential election in Iran. As someone who lived many years in the United States he could always be accused of holding a US Green Card or citizenship.

The "Paydari Front" that was one of the main supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, particularly after the disputed election in 2009, later distanced itself from him when he fell out with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2011 but its reunion with Ahmadinejad and other "principlists" ahead of the Majles election in February 2020, led to what observers in Iran believe to be the party's revival.

Morteza Agha Tehrani

The party has a firm standing in the current Majles. Dozens of its leading members, including six of the central committee members are serving as lawmakers. Two of its leading members are active as committee chairmen in the Majlis. One is Morteza Agha-Tehrani, now the party’s former secretary general who is Chairman of the Majlis Cultural Committee, and the other is Nasrollah Pejmanfar, who in addition to his membership in the central committee of the party, is also the Chairman of the Article 90 Committee at the Majles. Meanwhile, Ali Nikzad, the former Housing Minister is one of the vice-speakers of the Majles.

Although there is every indication that Paydari is going to be a key player at the 2021 election, Iranian media have observed that the party has refused to form a coalition with other Iranian conservative groups and does not take part in the meetings held by the Unity Council that enjoys the support of Iran's right-wing clerics. This is a typical behavior Paydari has shown in every election in Iran since 2009. Non-conformism is one of the main pillars of Paydari's political platform.

Like most other Islamic Republic political groups, Paydari has also several prospective candidates for the presidential election including Mahsouli himself, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and former housing minister Ali Nikzad. But Mahsouli is known for his role as a kingmaker and he is not likely to run himself.

Born in 1959 in Oroumiyeh (Urmia) in Iran's West Azarbaijan Province, Sadegh Mahsouli has a Bsc in Urban Development and an MA in business administration. His positions before 2006 include deputy governor general of West Azarbaijan Province, Commander of the IRGC in Western and Eastern Azarbaijan Provinces. As a local official, he came to know Ahmadinejad as a local governor in Maku and then in Ardabil.

He was an adviser to President Ahmadinejad (2006 – 2008), his Interior Minister (2008 – 2009), Welfare and Social Security Minister (2009 – 2010). He was the deputy secretary general of the Paydari Party since 2015.

Mahsouli is married to a sister-in-law of former Majles Speaker and current adviser to Khamenei, Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri.

Mahsouli was sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury in 2010 for his role in the crackdown of anti-government demonstrations after the disputed 2009 presidential election. US media said at the time that as the man in charge of police forces and Interior Ministry security agents, Mahsouli's forces were responsible for attacks on the dormitories of Tehran University in June 2009.

He has also been sanctioned in 2011 by the European Union for the same reasons.