Kaveh Madani's resignation and the silence of the Environmental Organization

Kaveh Madani, deputy head of the Environmental Organization, has left Iran. He resigned during a business trip. Kaveh Madani, an independent environmental scientist, had returned to Iran to work with the Rouhani government.

Mahmoud Sadeghi wrote on his Twitter page: "Today I heard from a reliable source that Kaveh Madani, the deputy head of the Environmental Protection Organization, has left Iran. His wife, who was banned from leaving, also left the country after the ban was lifted. A lesson for Iranian elites living abroad!"

This message was posted on the social network Twitter on Sunday, April 16. Many users of this network had been asking for several days: “Where is Kaveh Madani?” Kaveh Madani, a former professor of water and environmental management at Imperial College London and a prominent environmental researcher in the field of drought and the global water crisis, returned to Iran in 2017 at the invitation of the head of the Environmental Protection Organization to work with this organization in the Hassan Rouhani government.

His return to Iran was an encouraging sign for experts within the country of the presence of expert forces in the government and the possibility of expanding international cooperation. Kaveh Madani's work in a government institution also marked the beginning of a new chapter of cooperation for Iranian experts abroad who are eager to offer their knowledge and experiences for the progress of Iran.

Kaveh Madani holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, a Master's degree in Water Resources from Lund University, Sweden, and a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Tabriz.

In 2012, he was selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the ten “New Faces of Civil Engineering.” In 2016, the European Geosciences Union also introduced Kaveh Madani as one of four outstanding young scientists in the geosciences. When he returned to Iran, he was a renowned and independent young scientist who told the newspaper “Sharq” that one of the reasons for his return was to give his generation hope for participation in government decisions.

As an expert, he had said: “Someone told me, I should use this as a representative of my generation.” Kaveh Madani had emphasized in that interview: “Not everyone who left Iran is a foreigner. He is not a supporter of the past or a spy for arrogance. This view that everyone who left Iran is unreliable is not credible. It may happen that we can use the capital of Iranians living abroad in the government.”

Kaveh Madani probably didn’t expect to be arrested and charged with espionage before the end of the year. He was arrested on February 12, 2017, by IRGC intelligence agents in connection with the “espionage on environmental activists” case. The arrest was never officially confirmed, and Kaveh Madani attempted to normalize the situation by posting a message on Instagram from his workplace the next day. But his working conditions in Iran never became “normal.”

"The glimmers of hope that fade away"

The publication of a picture of Kaveh Madani at a meeting between the head of the Iranian Environmental Organization and the German ambassador on the German ambassador's account, referring to Kaveh Madani's presence and highlighting his name in the media to shed light on his activities, indicated a hidden conflict between Kaveh Madani's government supporters and opponents of the presence of an "outsider" in one of Iran's most sensitive government institutions.

The Environmental Organization's opposition to implementing large-scale projects without scientific support, including excessive dam construction and efforts to manage the water crisis, is not pleasing to institutions active in this field, including companies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, and has become a serious challenge for the Hassan Rouhani government.

The publication of pictures of Kaveh Madani at a private party on April 1 in a number of conservative media outlets, while Kaveh Madani was in Thailand to participate in the 5th Asia-Pacific Forum, supposedly ended the case and closed the case of the hidden controversy over Kaveh Madani in favor of the conservatives.

Mehr News Agency quoted an informed source as saying: "Kavah Madani resigned from his position while he was on a business trip abroad after his pictures were published in some media outlets. However, this resignation has not yet been accepted."

The news of Kaveh Madani's resignation has received widespread coverage in the country's official media and online space. Nahid Molavi, a reporter for the newspaper "Jameh-e-No", wrote on her Twitter account: "For you, it may be a simple resignation and departure, but for us, it is the last glimmer of hope that is extinguished."

The Iranian Environmental Organization has not yet officially commented on the resignation of its deputy.

In his first tweet after the news of his resignation was published, Kaveh Madani posted a poem by Houshang Ebtehaj.

Source: DW