Interior Secretary (Persia)

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The **Secretary of State for Internal Affairs** (Persian: **وزیر امور داخله**), also known simply as the **Interior Secretary**, is a senior cabinet minister within the Persian government and is the head of the powerful Ministry of the Interior. The position is considered one of the most prestigious appointments within the Persian government and is normally given to a respected or senior politician of the governing coalition.

As the head of the Ministry of the Interior, the secretary of state for internal affairs is responsible for a wide variety of portfolios and non-ministerial departments under the ministry. The ministry itself covers the portfolios of prisons, internal security, policing, environmental protection, disaster response, emergency planning and services, and also controls the government's immigration policy. Consequently, the Ministry of the Interior is one of the largest government departments and employs a sizeable workforce of civil servants and junior ministers to execute the responsibilities of the department. The interior secretary is personally accountable to both the prime minister and to congress, and is expected to inform congress of the actions of the Ministry of the Interior through legislative questioning, select committees, and the publication of written statements.

Similarly to all government ministers, the secretary of state for internal affairs is appointed by the president at the recommendation of the prime minister, though the president retains the power to reject a recommendation. The incumbent officeholder must either be a sitting member of the National Peoples Congress of the Republic of Persia or a serving member of the armed forces in order to hold office, but is not subject to any term limits for their position. Instead, they serve at the pleasure of the president, who has the power to dismiss the secretary of state for internal affairs at any given point; however, congress can vote to overturn the dismissal with a two thirds majority vote. Similarly, the National People's Congress also has the power to remove the interior secretary from office with a simple majority vote, but the president can veto any such resolution. Like most other cabinet ministers, the secretary of state for internal affairs is bound by departmental responsibility; this means that any failures of the Ministry of the Interior are automatically considered to be failures of the incumbent minister, who is consequently expected to offer their resignation to either the president or the prime minister. However, unlike in other ministries, the sheer scale of the Ministry of the Interior means that any offered resignation will likely be rejected unless the secretary of state for internal affairs is personally responsible for failings of the department.

Since the office's establishment in April 2018, there have been six people to hold the position across eleven ministries. In addition to this, Hassen Ahmed briefly served as acting interior secretary for 174 days between November 2035 and May 2036 in his capacity as president. At six years, Hossein Dehghan's tenure as interior secretary is the longest on record, whilst Anton Ivanov was the shortest serving permanent officeholder at just one year and one hundred and forty eight days. Between April 2020 and September 2021, both Ali Nikzad and Anton Ivanov claimed the office of interior secretary, though as the claimant with greater control over the majority of the country for the majority of the period of dispute, Ivanov's claim is treated as largely legitimate.

## Junior Ministers

Within the Ministry of the Interior, there are also several junior and mid-level congressional ministers who work under the direct leadership of the Secretary of State for Internal Affairs. However, unlike the secretary of state, most junior ministers occupy temporary or ad-hoc positions which are established and abolished on a regular basis. The secretary of state is unable to appoint their own junior ministers and appointments are usually made by the president on the advice of the prime minister; in some instances, junior ministers may be appointed to act as a check against the secretary of state, particularly if the secretary of state is a member of a different party to the president. Notable junior ministers in the Ministry of the Interior include:

* Hassen Ahmed - Minister for Local Government (2018 - 2020)