The Rise and Rise of Rouhani’s Brother

As nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 countries and Iran run up to the July 20 deadline, media attention is focused on the big players: US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif  and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. But there’s one highly influential figure that the international media has somewhat ignored: Hossein Fereydoon, senior negotiator, former intelligence man, and, by some accounts, a moderate reformist with credible influence. Fereydoon also happens to be the younger brother of Hassan Rouhani.

Over the last year, he’s been present at all high-level meetings, at times sitting at the table with Zarif and Ashton, but often in the background listening. He was there when Kerry arrived in Vienna on July 13; he was there  on July 27, 2013, when the groundwork was laid for nuclear negotiations. If recent events are anything to go by, Fereydoon’s influence has only just begun.

So who is Hossein Fereydoon? A senior member of Iran’s negotiating team, he is also the Special Advisor to the President in Executive Affairs and the head of the President’s Inspection Office, a role given to him by Mohammad Nahavandian, Rouhani’s chief of staff. Together, Nahavandian and Fereydoon represent two of the most powerful figures in Rouhani’s administration.

The Historic Phone Call and Other Rumors

Within Iran, there’s widespread media speculation around Fereydoon’s diplomatic sway. Hardline media have been quick to cast Fereydoon’s constant presence as a sign that Rouhani has lost trust in Zarif, bolstered by the fact that he has been seen at the foreign minister’s side during discussions with Kerry. Some reports place Fereydoon at the scene of last autumn’s phone call between President Barack Obama and President Rouhani, reporting that Fereydoon persuaded Rouhani to pick up the phone against the wishes of Zarif and others.

According to Iranian media, Fereydoon has made it clear that a nuclear accord must reached under Rouhani’s leadership, and any stall in the country’s nuclear program must by implemented by the current administration. Rouhani presents the best chance for a breakthrough, the line goes, and if it doesn’t happen, it’s unlikely that Rouhani will serve a second term. For the P5+1 countries, most of them hoping to keep a reformist in office—even a moderate one—this is a diplomatic message with real punch.

In March, hardline newspaper Vatan-e Emrouz reported that Fereydoon was also leading efforts to ease the economic strain of sanctions. The paper reported that he had been given the responsibility of “bypassing sanctions through currency exchanges” and controlling the flow of gold and hard currency, thereby reducing the amount of work done across various ministries.

A Track Record in Secrecy, Diplomacy—and Reform

Having served in Ayatollah Khomeini’s security unit in 1979 upon the Supreme Leader’s return to the country, Fereydoon has held various key roles. He was ambassador to Malaysia and first worked with Zarif during his tenure as part of the Iranian delegation to the U.N. in New York.

To fit his image as a somewhat mysterious figure in the background, his most influential role has also been his most secret: in July 2013, a weekly newspaper with close ties to the country’s security agencies, Panjareh, revealed that Fereydoon had been second in command in the Intelligence Ministry. Since then, there has been little media focus on Fereydoon’s role in maintaining national security, perhaps because of his influence in that sphere. Most politicians try to downplay their role in the secret services, particularly if their involvement occurred in the first decade following the revolution.

Yet he also has links with Mir Hossein Mousavi. During the 2009 presidential election, he was the liaison between Mousavi and his brother Hassan Rouhani. He traveled with Mousavi during his campaign across Iran and was part of his entourage when Mousavi famously faced former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a television debate.

The Shadow President

In domestic affairs or foreign policy, Fereydoon is a large presence—meeting with John Kerry, sitting next to Revolutionary Corps’ commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari in key discussions, talking to prominent cultural figures in Iran such as filmmaker Masoud Dehnamaki and novelist Mahmoud Dolatabadi. He’s the only non-cleric member of the influential Assembly of Experts—described by a hardline website as a key move in breaking the clergy’s monopoly on political influence. Whether he’s addressing groups who lost family members in the Iran-Iraq war, attending cabinet meetings in the red brick building on Tehran’s Pasteur Avenue or holidaying in the Persian Gulf island resort of Kish, Fereydoon is everywhere, like a shadow president. He’s said to have considerable influence over cabinet member selection, with the appointment of Majid Ansari to parliamentary vice-president being a case in point: according to moderate conservative website Nameh News, the man previously tipped for the job, Ali Asgari, had previously fallen out with Fereydoon. 

Of course, Fereydoon has been an important supporter of his brother, promoting his candidacy for president back in 2005, when he was Rouhani’s advisor at a strategic research center. But it was only in 2013 that his plans really began to take shape. It’s then that the media took more notice of this key player in Rouhani’s advisory team, publishing photographs of the quiet, well-dressed man on the campaign trail with his brother. In one photograph, taken in June 2013, he is sitting next to Rouhani in a gymnasium in the northwestern city of Urmia, trying to cool off his brother from the stifling heat.

Whatever happens in Vienna, it’s clear that Hoseein Fereydoon’s influence is on the rise. The man with a stylish beret and sunglasses is, as Bloomberg News puts it, the “president’s eyes and ears.” He’s forecast to play a key role in both international and domestic developments, from agreements on the nuclear program to the easing of sanctions to possible reform across a number of issues.