Iran’s Parliament Schemes to Impeach Ahmadinejad

Posted on Nov 23, 2010

AP / Iranian Students News Agency / Arash Khamushi

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greets supporters before casting his ballot in the last round of presidential elections, held in June 2009.

A serious rift has divided the Iranian government in a manner that could be tricky to resolve, as it puts the country’s parliament on one side and its president on the other. On Monday, the news broke in local papers that Iran’s parliament had been working on a plan to eject President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office but was stopped by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who represents the biggest obstacle in the assembly’s apparently ongoing impeachment effort.  —KA

The Wall Street Journal:

The reports of challenges to Mr. Ahmadinejad were intended as retorts to a powerful body of clerics that urged Mr. Khamenei to curb the parliament’s authority and give greater clout to the president.

In a report released Sunday and discussed in parliament Monday, four prominent lawmakers laid out the most extensive public criticism of Mr. Ahmadinejad to date.

They accused him and his government of 14 counts of violating the law, often by acting without the approval of the legislature. Charges include illegally importing gasoline and oil, failing to provide budgetary transparency and withdrawing millions of dollars from Iran’s foreign reserve fund without getting parliament’s approval.

“The president and his cabinet must be held accountable in front of the parliament,” the report stated. “A lack of transparency and the accumulation of legal violations by the government is harming the regime.”

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