IRAN: Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was facing a crisis yesterday after MPs rejected his third nominee as oil minister, the most strategically-sensitive post in his government.
Amid a rising chorus of domestic criticism of the president's confrontational style, the Iranian parliament, the Majlis, rebuffed his choice of Mohsen Tasalloti for a job which entails control over the lion's share of the economy.
Mr Tasalloti, a former revolutionary guard comrade of the president, had been beset by rumours that he is a millionaire with a green card for the United States and has a daughter living in Britain.
Mr Ahmadinejad yesterday called the claims "unjust" and said parliament's decision was "not fair". But it was clear that the reservations over Mr Tasalloti's personal shortcomings were little more than a front for a bitter struggle for control of Iran's key industry between radical Islamist supporters of Mr Ahmadinejad and traditional conservatives backing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic state's supreme leader.
Two weeks ago, Mr Ahmadinejad's second choice for oil minister, Sadeq Mahsouli, withdrew because he lacked parliamentary support. The original nominee was rejected in August.
With the official deadline for approval of cabinet ministers expiring today, the next oil minister of the world's fourth-biggest producer of the fuel may now be chosen either by the guardian council - a religious watchdog loyal to Mr Khamenei - or by the expediency council, an organisation headed by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was defeated by Mr Ahmadinejad in this year's presidential election and has since been very critical of the president's performance.
Losing control over the appointment would be a serious blow to Mr Ahmadinejad, who won the June poll largely due to promises to redistribute Iran's oil wealth to the poor. It follows speculation that he may be impeached over a controversial record which has so far included the sacking of four senior Iranian ambassadors and seven state bank chiefs as well as the removal of a host of less prominent figures and a 25 per cent slump in stock exchange values.
"We have never before seen this kind of conflict between parliament and the government, even before the revolution," said Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran-based political analyst. "But Iran is earning oil revenues of about $110 million per day, and that is big enough to compensate for the [president's political] mismanagement." - (Guardian Service)