Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has chosen Vahid Jalalzadeh as his deputy for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Expatriates Affairs, Iranian state media reported Wednesday.
The appointment, on its surface, does not seem to fit well with Jalalzadeh’s previous record as head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee and some of his other roles. Nevertheless, bringing him into the ministry may be a way to elevate his status and could have ramifications.Let’s look at what is known about Jalalzadeh. He “served as the governor of West Azerbaijan province from 2009 to 2013 in the Government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the adviser to the head of the office and the director general of international affairs of the president’s office,” Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
On April 3, after Israel carried out an airstrike in Damascus, Jalalzadeh, then head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Iran would respond “at the right time and place.” Ten days later, Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. After the Iranian attack, Jalalzadeh said Iran should punish the Kingdom of Jordan for helping to intercept the Iranian attack.
Jalalzadeh's past statements
Jalalzadeh has also praised Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its aggressive actions in the region. He has supported attacks by the IRGC on the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, for instance, claiming Iran was targeting Israeli “spy bases.” He has also said Israeli strikes in Syria were part of a way for Israel to widen the conflict in the region. He believes Israel is now stuck in a quagmire of war.
Jalalzadeh is also a key conduit for Iranian ties with Russia. Last October, weeks after the October 7 massacre, he led a parliamentary delegation to Moscow to meet with Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, one of the chambers of the Russian parliament. They spent time in Moscow discussing the Israel-Hamas War, which illustrates how much the Palestinian issue matters to Jalalzadeh.
“Vahid Jalalzadeh conveyed to Vyacheslav Volodin a message from the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf with calls for condemning the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and a request to provide additional support to the ‘oppressed people of Palestine,’ including at the parliamentary level,” the Duma said in a statement. He also met with Russia’s special presidential representative for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, the statement said.In 2022, Jalalzadeh gave an address to the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. He “stressed the role and place of parliaments in the situation ‘when events unfolding in our region present opportunities and numerous challenges,’” a report said. This is part of his outreach to Russia and former Soviet states.
Last October, during a meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, who at the time was head of Hamas’s so-called political bureau, he said: “It is not clear whether the strategic patience of the resistance movements will continue in the coming days with the continued attacks of the Zionist regime.”
Jalalzadeh has also visited Syria to back the Assad regime.“In a statement released after his meetings with Syrian officials in Damascus, Vahid Jalalzadeh, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, reiterated Iran’s strong support for Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a Chinese media outlet reported last October.“We reject any violation of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he was quoted as saying. “We also reject the continuation of any occupation of Syrian land by the US and Turkey.”While Jalalzadeh opposes Ankara’s role in Syria, he has said Iran is not going to replace Russia’s role. Russia and Iran back Assad.During his time in parliament, Jalalzadeh extended an invitation to Lebanese Amal leader Nabih Berri to visit Iran. He has also issued statements about Iran reviewing the nuclear deal with the West.Before Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian died in a helicopter crash, he traveled with Jalalzadeh to Oman to shore up Iranian ties there.Considering Jalalzadeh’s key role in ties with Russia, Syria, and other countries in the region, and his belligerent attitude toward Israel’s role, his appointment at the ministry appears important. The role he has been given, however, seems to clip his wings. It remains to be seen if his new role is a stepping stone to something larger.