Behzad Nabavi
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Behzad Nabavi (بهزاد نبوی in Persian) (born 1941) is an Iranian politician. He was the former Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Iran and one of the founders of the reformist party Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization. He is considered one of the contemporary ideologues of the Islamic left in Iran.
Nabavi acted as the chief negotiator of Iran during the discussions with United States officials in the Iran hostage crisis. He was among the founders of the Islamic Revolution Committees (known as komite in Iran) in the early years of the Islamic Republic, a security force mainly working against armed opposition parties and militia, and also a founder of the Intelligence Office under the Presidency, which later became the Ministry of Intelligence.
Before the Islamic Revolution, he was an armed guerrilla fighter against the Pahlavi government, and has served a prison term because of that.
Nabavi has served in different posts in the government of Iran, including a member of the Central Committee of the Islamic Revolution, the head of the Setad-e Basij-e Eghtesadi-e Keshvar (the body that introduced government-issued coupons because of economical difficulties of the Iran-Iraq war), which made the conservatives call him a couponist (which rhymes with communist in Persian), the Minister of Heavy Industries under Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and a representative of Tehran to the parliament (39% of ballots in 2000).
Nabavi resigned as a member of the parliament on February 1, 2004, together with more than 100 MPs, and his resignation was accepted by a 154/22/7 (for/against/absentation) vote by the parliament on April 18, 2004. In his resignation speech, he mentioned the "violation of public rights" to be his main reason for resignation.
He has also worked in some governmental petroleum industry companies, and has acted as the Chairman of the Board in Petro Pars and a consultant to the CEO in Mapna, a company working on expansion of oil refineries in Iran.
Nabavi has been one of the major critics of the Council of Guardians, and in turn, the council has doubted his faith to Islam a few times, and prohibited him to run as a candidate in certain elections, including the parliamental elections of 2004. He has also been summoned by the judiciary for libel and "disturbing the public mind", when he was serving as an MP and hence certain restrictions applied for such summonings.
Nabavi is among the people who started the notions of insider and outsider in the Islamic Republic, an idea that is mainly used by the conservatives these days. He still personally follows a division of insider and outsider, and doesn't sign the political declarations of his own party if it is co-signed by the Freedom Movement Party, a nationalist-religious party whose members have served as the first interim government of the Islamic Republic, but is now considered illegal by certain officials in the government, from both reformists and conservatives.
He has personally confirmed that when he was arrested in 1972, he had tried suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill, which "fortunately or unfortunately" didn't work.
Quotes
- "If one admits that the Iraqis are delighted with Saddam Hussein's end, one must also think about the possibility that maybe, the Iranians would celebrate at the end of the Islamic Republic as well."
- "Because of my sharp attitude, Beheshti always compared me to a bitter plant."
- "Unfortunately, I have not finished reading a single book since I was released from the prison until now (1987). Everything I've done is based on what I've read before that."