Taeb Replaced As IRGC Intel Chief After Backlash From Hardliners

Hossein Taeb, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' intelligence chief, has been dismissed as an internal struggle rages within the powerful security organisation. Earlier this week, three administrators of hardliner-linked Telegram social media accounts were arrested and charged with publishing “classified documents” as well as “disturbing public opinion.”

• Observers have speculated that the arrests were part of 'score settling' within the hardliner camp.
• Kian Sharifi at the BBC tweets: "It's official: Mohammad Kazemi has replaced Hossein Taeb as the intelligence chief of the IRGC. Taeb led the IRGC Intelligence Organisation since its inception in 2009. He's successor, Brig Gen Kazemi, was the head of the IRGC's counterintelligence wing, the Intelligence Protection Organisation.
  Taeb has been named as an advisor to IRGC Commander-in-Chief Salami. Kazemi's appointment shows that, unlike the intelligence minister, the IRGC intelligence chief doesn't need to be a cleric."
• With international focus still on the prospect of an agreement being reached on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, power struggles within Iran's senior most military and political institutions bodes poorly for Tehran agreeing to terms with Western nations.