IRAN’S PARLIAMENT yesterday confirmed most of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, and in so doing gave a resounding vote of confidence to a man wanted by Interpol on suspicion of masterminding an attack on an Argentine Jewish centre.
The Iranian president won confirmation for all but three of his 21 cabinet nominees, in what analysts saw as a successful attempt by Mr Ahmadinejad to portray unity within a regime shaken by the June election crisis.
Parliament is dominated by fundamentalists, but many of them had expressed doubts over several candidates. After intensive debate, however, the legislative body rejected only the nominee for the energy ministry, as well as two women nominated to run the ministries of welfare and education.
In a defiant move, Gen Ahmad Vahidi, who is accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires, won broad support as defence minister.
Masoud Mir-Kazemi, the designated oil minister, who had been expected to be rejected for lack of experience, was approved by a thin margin.
The line-up reflects a consolidation of power by elite military forces, a trend set to continue while the regime feels threatened by reformists’ accusations of election rigging. The interior minister is a revolutionary guard commander; the intelligence minister a cleric with ties to the guard.
In a sign the regime is concerned about tensions at universities, Kamran Daneshjoo, a former governor of Tehran and head of the presidential election headquarters, was approved as higher education minister.
Of the three women candidates who were nominated for ministerial posts, only Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi was approved to run the health ministry. According to local media, senior clergy in the holy city of Qom had threatened to issue religious decrees against women ministers. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)