Ahmad Kashani ( fa, احمد کاشانی) is an Iranian politician. He was a member of the Iranian parliament from 1980 to 1986. On November 5, 1986, although he was still a member of the parliament, was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence and National Security and passed 2 years of his life in the jail. He registered as a presidential candidate in the 2013 Iranian presidential election. His nomination was rejected by

Guardian Council The Guardian Council, (also called Council of Guardians or Constitutional Council, fa, شورای نگهبان, Shourā-ye Negahbān) is an appointed and constitutionally mandated 12-member council that wields considerable power and influence i ...

Early life and family

He was born on 23 December 1947 in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. His father,

Abol-Ghasem Kashani Sayyed Abol-Ghasem Mostafavi-Kashani ( fa, سید ابوالقاسم کاشانی ''Abu’l-Qāsem Kāšāni''; 19 November 1882 – 13 March 1962) was an Iranian politician and Shia Marja. Early life His father, Ayatollah Hajj Seyyed Mostafa ...

was a prominent Twelver Shia Muslim cleric and former chairman of the

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. He is also younger brother of

Mahmoud Kashani Sayyid Mahmoud Kashani (born 6 June 1942) is an Iranian politician, academic, writer and lawyer. He is also a professor in Shahid Beheshti University. He was head of the Iranian delegation to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Nether ...

Career

According to

Trita Parsi Trita Parsi ( fa, تریتا پارسی, born 21 July 1974) is the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council. ...

's ''Treacherous Alliance'', in early 1980 Kashani visited Israel to discuss arms sales and military cooperation regarding Iraq's

Osirak Operation Opera ( he, מבצע אופרה), also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force on 7 June 1981, which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor located southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. ...

nuclear reactor. This resulted in an arms deal (a shipment of F4 Phantom tyres and other weapons, the beginning of Operation Seashell) and the

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

's permission for large numbers of

Iranian Jew Persian Jews or Iranian Jews ( fa, یهودیان ایرانی, ''yahudiān-e-Irāni''; he, יהודים פרסים ''Yəhūdīm Parsīm'') are the descendants of Jews who were historically associated with the Persian Empire, whose successor s ...

s to leave Iran, including thousands who left via bus to Pakistan and then via air to Austria, before heading to the US or Israel. Kashani was a deputy for

Natanz Natanz ( fa, نطنز, also romanized as Naţanz) is a city and capital of Natanz County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 12,060, in 3,411 families. It is located south-east of Kashan. Its bracing climate and lo ...

when he was one of several arrested in 1986 on charges of conspiring with

Mehdi Hashemi Mehdi Hashemi (1944 – 28 September 1987) was an Iranian Shi'a cleric who was defrocked by the Special Clerical Court. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, he became a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards; he was executed by the Is ...

. Details of the alleged links with Hashemi were not provided.Bahman Baktiari (1996)
Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran: The Institutionalization of Factional Politics
University Press of Florida, p137 Hashemi and one other were executed, while the rest, including Kashani, were pardoned or received sentences. Kashani was released after 28 months., p166

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kashani, Ahmad 1947 births Living people People from Tehran Members of the 1st Islamic Consultative Assembly Members of the 2nd Islamic Consultative Assembly