Suspension of the impeachment of the Minister of Interior due to Khamenei's opposition

Ali Motahari, while thanking the signatories of the impeachment motion for Rahmani Fazli, announced that the motion was postponed due to Khamenei's opposition, and cited the upcoming parliamentary elections as a possible reason. He emphasized that the impeachment is not ruled out, but rather postponed.

Ali Motahari announced the postponement of the impeachment of the Interior Minister and its postponement until after the March elections. He, who brought the impeachment motion to the parliament due to the way he faced the November protests, says: "Despite the great pressure that came from various quarters on the impeaching representatives to withdraw their signatures, this impeachment now has 20 signatures, while only 10 signatures are required. These 20 people are to be commended."

The ILNA news agency quoted this member of the Omid faction as saying: "The presiding board says that the Supreme Leader is opposed to this impeachment, so we are not announcing its receipt... Their opposition is probably due to the upcoming parliamentary elections."

Motahari said that the impeachment remains in effect and will be postponed until after the parliamentary elections: "We believe that the Minister of Interior, as the executor of the decision of the Coordination Council of the Heads of Powers regarding fuel consumption management, has created significant financial losses and human casualties by not providing the necessary preparations and arrangements to implement this decision and has dealt a blow to the Islamic Republic system, and he must come and answer to the people's representatives for this great mistake."

Motahari had previously said that he would pursue the impeachment of Rahmani Fazli unless the Leader of the Islamic Republic wanted it.

In his initial reactions, he held Rouhani primarily responsible for implementing the gasoline price hike plan and said: "Since the country is not in normal conditions, impeaching the president is not appropriate."

Although Motahari demanded an apology from the officials and those responsible, he said at a student event: “The scandal that has occurred must be contained in a way that does not harm the essence of the system.” He also rejected the protesters’ affiliation with supporters of the monarchy or the MEK, saying: “These were poor commoners… Some people were arrested in Tehran who did not know what a reformist, fundamentalist, or hypocrite was… They were not like the type of protests that took place after the 2009 elections.”

A Tehran MP says the gasoline price hike plan was bad and poorly implemented, but if the parliament had not backed down, the situation would have been worse and internal conflict would have arisen. In his opinion, the parliament's backtracking was not due to mere obedience on the part of the MPs: "Rather, the MPs themselves felt that they should not get involved in this issue."

Source: DW