Tehran: In an apparent snub to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the majority of Iranian MPs on Tuesday praised the intelligence minister who he has sacked.
Of the 290 MPs in parliament, 210 signed a statement
saying Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie had passed a "great test"
in defending Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"In the past few days we saw hojatoeslam (Gholam
Hossein) Mohseni Ejeie passing a great test in which he
defended the supreme leader and showed he would not hesitate
when it comes to defending him," said the statement, carried
by the official IRNA news agency.
Ahmadinejad sacked Ejeie on Sunday after a "verbal
quarrel" over the delayed decision by the re-elected president
to drop a controversial aide he had picked as his first
deputy, according to Mehr news agency.
Iranian media reports said Ejeie told Ahmadinejad
that he should have quickly dropped Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as
first vice president when Khamenei himself had ordered him to
do so.
Khamenei gave the order in a letter to Ahmadinejad
dated July 18, but the president acted on the order only a
week later, triggering criticism from his own hardline camp.
On Sunday, 200 MPs asked Ahmadinejad to "obey"
Khamenei. The departure of the influential minister has
triggered a new political crisis in Iran, engulfing
Ahmadinejad at a time when the Islamic republic faces
its worst crisis since the 1979 revolution.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 18:41