Suspension of Interior Minister Impeachment Due to Leader’s Opposition
Ali Motahari, appreciating the signatories of the impeachment motion against Rahmani Fazli, announced the postponement of the motion due to the Leader’s opposition and attributed the likely reason to the upcoming parliamentary elections. He emphasized that the impeachment is not canceled, but rather postponed to a later date.
Ali Motahari announced the postponement of the Interior Minister’s impeachment motion to after the Esfand elections. He, who brought the Interior Minister impeachment motion to parliament due to the manner of dealing with November protests, stated: “This impeachment, despite considerable pressures from various places on the impeaching representatives to withdraw their signatures, now has 20 signatures while only 10 signatures are required. These 20 people are worthy of appreciation.”
ILNA news agency, quoting this member of the Hope faction, wrote: “The Presidium says the Supreme Leader is opposed to this impeachment, therefore we are not announcing its receipt… Perhaps His opposition is due to the upcoming parliamentary elections.”
Motahari stated that the impeachment remains valid and is postponed to after the parliamentary elections: “We believe that the Interior Minister, as the executor of the Supreme Coordinating Council’s decision regarding fuel consumption management, by failing to provide the necessary prerequisites and arrangements for implementing this decision, created conditions for significant financial damages and loss of life, and dealt a blow to the Islamic Republic system, and must come and answer to the people’s representatives for this major mistake.”
Motahari had previously stated that he would pursue the impeachment of Rahmani Fazli, unless the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic objects.
In his initial reactions, he considered President Rouhani as the main responsible party for implementing the gasoline price increase plan, and stated: “Since the country is not in normal conditions, impeaching the President is not appropriate.”
Although Motahari called for officials and those responsible to apologize, he said at a student event: “The scandal that has occurred must be resolved in such a way that the system itself is not harmed.” He also rejected linking the protesters to royalist supporters or the Mujahedin organization, and said: “These were poor commoners… In Tehran, some people were arrested who didn’t know what reformist, conservative, or hypocrite meant… They were not similar to the type of protests after the 2009 elections.”
Tehran’s representative says the gasoline price increase plan was bad and badly executed, but if the parliament had not backed down, the situation would have been worse and created contradictions within the country. According to him, the parliament’s retreat was not due to mere obedience of representatives: “Rather, the representatives themselves felt that they should not get involved with this issue.”
Source: DW
