President Ahmadinejad to be questioned by Iranian lawmakers

[Hax]

Well well well...

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 24, 2010; 10:50 AM
TEHRAN, Iran -- Dozens of Iranian lawmakers have signed a petition seeking to make Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the first president to be summoned for questioning since the Islamic Revolution 32 years ago.
However the challenge looks unlikely to succeed because the numbers fall short of the constitutional requirement that at least one-fourth of the 290 parliament members must sign the petition before the president can be questioned.
Still it was a reminder that Ahmadinejad, one of the most polarizing leaders on the international scene, also faces deep dissent within his own country and even within his own conservative political camp. However, his position appears secure as long as he continues to have the support of the country's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces. With Khamenei's strong support for the president, it is unlikely that enough lawmakers would sign the petition.
Ali Motahari, a hardline lawmaker behind the petition, says Iran's tensions with the outside world and its domestic woes will not stop lawmakers from taking the president to account.
"I don't believe that questioning (the president) will cause tension. Our people should know that putting questions to the president is a right of lawmakers. Perhaps the president's explanations will convince the parliament," a reformist news website, aftabnews.ir news, quoted Motahari as saying Wednesday.
Iranian lawmakers, including conservatives, have complained in the past about being sidelined in key decisions by Ahmadinejad over issues such as foreign policy and strategic economic planning.
Those behind the petition want Ahmadinejad to respond to a long list of accusations. They include making statements that damage parliament, refusing to carry out laws enacted by parliament, withdrawing money from the central bank without proper authorization. They also accuse him of lack of transparency on budget spending.
Ahmadinejad portrayed himself as a champion of the poor when he first swept to power in 2005, promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty, improve living standards and tackle unemployment. Both conservatives and reform-minded politicians have been increasingly challenging him over his failure to meet those promises.
Reformists and even some fellow conservatives say Ahmadinejad has concentrated too much on fiery, anti-U.S. speeches and not enough on the economy - and they have become more aggressive in calling him to account.
The government is still coping with the consequences of a massive bloody confrontation with protesters and is still being challenged by the opposition that claims Ahmadinejad won the June 2009 presidential elections through massive vote fraud

Full article here.


This is intriguing. If Ahmadinejad messed up so bad he even has some of the conservatives against him now, then perhaps there is a new wind blowing through Iran. It'll be interesting to see where this is going.

[Ice]

Well well well...




Full article here.


This is intriguing. If Ahmadinejad messed up so bad he even has some of the conservatives against him now, then perhaps there is a new wind blowing through Iran. It'll be interesting to see where this is going.

However, his position appears secure as long as he continues to have the support of the country's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces. With Khamenei's strong support for the president, it is unlikely that enough lawmakers would sign the petition.

It doesn't look like it really matters what the lawmakers sign.

[Fragony]

Most excellent

[Hax]

It doesn't look like it really matters what the lawmakers sign.

Don't forget that the Assembly of Experts can depose the Leader (Supreme Ayatollah), if they get a majority of the Assembly behind them, things might get really interesting.

[Louis VI the Fat]

This is intriguing. If Ahmadinejad messed up so bad he even has some of the conservatives against him now, then perhaps there is a new wind blowing through Iran. It'll be interesting to see where this is going.

I don't see this going anywhere any time soon. Still, at the very least

'it was a reminder that Ahmadinejad, one of the most polarizing leaders on the international scene, also faces deep dissent within his own country and even within his own conservative political camp'.

It does count for something. Ahmadinejad is not going to remain in power indefinately. We'll see.

[Fragony]

I don't see this going anywhere any time soon. Still, at the very least

'it was a reminder that Ahmadinejad, one of the most polarizing leaders on the international scene, also faces deep dissent within his own country and even within his own conservative political camp'.

It does count for something. Ahmadinejad is not going to remain in power indefinately. We'll see.

Don't think this is all that insignificant even if it won't lead to anything very soon, fundaments are crumbling. The modernisation of Islam WILL start in Iran I'm sure of it.

[Husar]

I'm with Louis, don't think they suddenly make him go just like that, although it would be pretty cool.

But then I want to point out a small and completely unrelated thing that always irks me, I mean this is much nicer anyway.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Shi'a Islam is more disposed to being moderate than Sunni Islam, its strong hierarchy and sort of priestly caste means that there will always be a moderating influence to keep the would-be fanatics under control. It also makes Shi'aness less prone to modernisation/liberalisation. I guess its kind of like the Catholicism of Islam.

[gaelic cowboy]

Shi'a Islam is more disposed to being moderate than Sunni Islam, its strong hierarchy and sort of priestly caste means that there will always be a moderating influence to keep the would-be fanatics under control. It also makes Shi'aness less prone to modernisation/liberalisation. I guess its kind of like the Catholicism of Islam.

It is the wet dream of pentagon planners to have a moderate government in Iran who has less frosty relations with the West. The benfits geo-politically and blah blah blah are the nightmare of the even more repressive Sunni governments.

[Rhyfelwyr]

It is the wet dream of pentagon planners to have a moderate government in Iran who has less frosty relations with the West. The benfits geo-politically and blah blah blah are the nightmare of the even more repressive Sunni governments.

At the end of the day it doesn't really affect us how barbarous or backward the type of Islam they practise in some countries is. Even the strictest Saudi Wahhabists condemn Al-Qaeda's vision of jihad. Sure they are as backward as you can be and I wouldn't want to live there, but at least they aren't going to come here and try to blow me up. The hobted of the idea of global jihad is not the well consolidated backward regimes, but the unstable places like Yemen, Somalia etc.

They young Wabbabist of an Indonesian university is infinitely more dangerous to me than some old Wahhabist guy looking after some goats in the desert (or whatever they do).

[CountArach]

Whilst nothing will clearly come from it, it is nice to see that there is a continued public discourse of freedom and scrutiny going on in the Iranian underground. Let us hope that this can continue for as long as it takes for people to finally overthrow the Iranian Government and then into the new Government's own rule.