Mehdi Chamran

Chamran is the brother of Mostafa Chamran.^[1] They were both members of the "Red Shiism", a radical group that was founded by Mostafa in the US in 1965.^[2]

Chamran served as the head of Iran's external intelligence. He was among those who contributed to the Iran's nuclear development program from the start.^[3] He was the chairman of the City Council of Tehran^[4] from 2003 to 2013. He received the most votes from the Tehrani electorate in three of the elections he was elected in, in 2003, 2006 and 2013.^{[citation needed]}

A major supporter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his mayorship,^[5] Chamran turned towards Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his supporters during the 2006 elections,^[6] which resulted in a three-way split of the third Tehran council between the two conservative factions and reformist candidates. Comparatively, the second council only consisted of conservative members and the first council mostly of reformist members.^{[citation needed]}