Senior visiting fellow, George Mason University
President Masoud Pezeshkian has drawn fire over his decision to hand leadership over a crucial new energy body tasked with confronting an acute power crisis to a bureaucrat with no background in the sector.
The newly formed Energy Optimization and Strategic Management Organization (EOMSO) was hailed as a technocratic command center for a sector in crisis.
With Esmaeil Saghab Esfahani at its helm, tens of millions of Iranians could soon feel through the consequences of having untested hands manage a key aspect of their daily lives.
Iran’s energy system is under historic strain. Chronic blackouts, aging grids, water scarcity and soaring demand have eroded reliability, while subsidies distort consumption and drain national revenue.
Esfahani held a senior position in the administration of Pezeshkian's hardline predecessor Ebrahim Raisi and his appointment has been attributed by some critics as a potential sop to to the government's conservative opponents.
Lacking expertise
The EOMSO was created in early 2025 to confront these pressures by streamlining policy and coordinating investment across electricity, oil, gas and renewables. Its mandate runs from grid modeling and demand-side management to long-term transition planning.
But Esfahani's previous work centered on administrative reform, social equity programs and government transformation initiatives—useful skills, but far removed from the thermodynamics, market design, regulatory engineering and infrastructure planning that define modern energy governance.
There is no record of experience in electricity economics, energy markets, renewable-integration planning or the operational challenges of Iran’s grid and gas systems.
This gap represents more than a resume mismatch. It signals strategic misalignment at a moment when Iran needs precision and domain-specific leadership most.
Task at hand
The stakes are high because EOMSO is tasked to reduce Iran’s estimated $53 billion in annual energy waste, guiding renewable-energy investment with the National Development Fund, supervising subsidy reform and steering the transition toward cleaner and more resilient energy systems.
Integrating the cultures and functions of multiple legacy institutions into a single strategic entity is itself a formidable challenge.
Doing so under intensifying demand pressures, geopolitical volatility, and deteriorating infrastructure requires leadership that understands both the technical architecture and the political economy of Iran’s energy sector.
Without deep technical grounding, the organization risks drifting toward procedural audits rather than reform. Key initiatives could stall. Policies can be misjudged, wasting limited capital and prolonging Iran’s vulnerability to outages.
Administrative instincts alone are no substitute for practical knowledge.
Political cost
Beyond the technical implications, the appointment carries political and institutional consequences that reach into Pezeshkian’s broader reform agenda.
The moderate president campaigned on professionalizing governance and empowering specialists. Choosing Esfahani undercuts that promise and risks reducing EOMSO to another venue where political balancing supersedes competence.
Public trust, already strained by blackouts and stalled projects, is unlikely to withstand another round of unmet expectations. Energy policy touches households and industries daily; missteps are felt immediately.
The danger is not personal failure on the part of Saghab Esfahani. It is the systemic vulnerability created when a critical institution is led without the technical authority needed to manage its portfolio.
Iran’s energy crisis is too severe, and the EOMSO’s mandate too demanding, for improvisation. The body’s creation could be a step toward coherent energy governance if the administration compensates for the expertise gap.
Without corrective measures—and fast—the appointment risks becoming an energy turning point for all the wrong reasons.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.