 | | | Ahmadinejad faces a confidence vote on his cabinet choices |
TEHRAN (Agencies) Iran's parliament began a three-day session on Sunday to debate and vote on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed new cabinet following his disputed re-election.
The confidence vote comes as Iran is gripped in political turmoil after Ahmadinejad's re-election triggered massive street protests which left at least 30 people dead and shook the pillars of the Islamic regime.
The outcome of the vote on the hard-line president's 21-member cabinet is seen as a test of his hold on power after the June 12 election, which defeated candidates say was rigged in his favor. The authorities deny the allegations.
" We will continue to support oppressed nations and cooperate constructively with all nations except the Zionist regime " Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The president, presenting his new government and its planned policies to the conservative-dominated parliament, told MPs he planned "important steps forward" during his second four-year term.
Ahmadinejad said his victory in the June 12 presidential election was confirmation that the Iranian people wanted his government to "continue on the same path" of his first four-year term.
"We are committed to spreading justice, preserving the national dignity, achieve progress and confront the bullying powers. We will continue to support oppressed nations and cooperate constructively with all nations except the Zionist regime," he said of arch-foe Israel. |  | Under fire from own camp Ahmadinejad is under fire from his own hardline camp over several decisions he took soon after his re-election, and many MPs are furious at not being consulted over his cabinet choices.
He faces a daunting task in securing a mandate from the conservative-dominated assembly for his line-up which includes several new faces, among them three women -- a first in the Islamic republic.
Lawmaker Ali Akbar Yousefnajed, who was a senior official in the government of Ahmadinejad's reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami, criticised the hardliner.
"The president used the same words in qualifying his cabinet as he used four years ago. How come we have 14 new faces?" he asked. "Where are those who were sacked in the last four years?"
During his first term, Ahmadinejad received flak for firing 10 ministers, two central bank chiefs and several other top officials.
But conservative MP Hossein Garousi defended the new line-up.
"The nominees are highly educated and they coordinate well with the president," he said. "If we saw people changing (in the existing cabinet), it was because the president is very meticulous when it comes to management."
He has retained five ministers from his existing cabinet in the same capacity in the new line-up, including foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. | | The abilities of women Ahmadinejad said the presence of women in cabinet raised the \"self-confidence\" of Iranian women The three female nominees are also expected to face an uphill battle as some clerics have questioned the managerial abilities of women.
"Islam respects women, but respecting women does not mean that heavy social positions be given to them," hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami said on Saturday.
Sousan Keshvaraz, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi and Fatemeh Ajorlou have been proposed respectively as ministers of education, health, and welfare and social security.
Ajorlou is controversial as she was prosecuted for supporting Abbas Palizdar, who was jailed for accusing several senior clerics, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and their children of corruption.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad said the presence of women in the cabinet line-up has raised the "self-confidence" of women in Iran and triggered "jubilation among Iranian women." | | Predicting failure Ahmad Vahidi is wanted in Argentina for the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires Influential MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar has predicted that four to five men and the women nominees will fail to convince the lawmakers.
Several MPs accuse the president, whose proposed government has already been rejected by reformists and opposition groups, of selecting nominees who completely "submit" themselves to him.
Current defense minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar has been nominated as the next interior minister and commerce minister Masoud Mirkazemi was Ahmadinejad's pick for the oil ministry of OPEC's second largest crude exporter.
However, Mirkazemi is expected to be rejected because of his lack of expertise in the crucial sector, media reports said. He was also nearly impeached during the current term over rising prices of basic commodities.
Ahmadinejad's choice of Ahmad Vahidi as next defense minister has also been controversial after an outcry in Argentina, where he is wanted for the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people.
In 2007, Interpol distributed to its 187 member countries an Argentine warrant for Vahidi's arrest.
Lawmakers also doubt defense minister Najjar's credentials to be the new interior minister given his military background. |
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