Iran: Majlis summons Rouhani for questioning
Iran, August 28, 2018 - Over 80 members of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) presented various questions and forced regime President Hassan Rouhani to show up for questioning. Out of 5 questions put to Rouhani by the members of the parliament, four answers did not convince the MPs.
The state-run E’temad Online website reported, “After the Majlis members remained unconvinced of the president’s answers to four questions, the raised issues will be referred to the judiciary and afterwards the judiciary’s evaluation will once again be sent to the Majlis for the members to make their decision.”
Rouhani’s cabinet failing to bring the smuggling of goods and currency under control, continuing banking sanctions, the cabinet failing to take any measures to decrease unemployment, intense economic recession during the past few years, skyrocketing foreign currency prices and the nosediving value of the country’s currency were five subjects Majlis grilled Rouhani on.
Rouhani specifically said in his remarks that the Iranian people are losing their “trust in the Islamic republic and are questioning the state’s powers.”
This is the first time during Rouhani’s tenure that the Majlis has summoned him for questioning.
“Why isn’t the list of individuals receiving currency published, and what are you afraid of? Why do you spend hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary foreign visits while the people are concerned about high prices and inflation?” asked Mohammad Dehghan, one of the Majlis members. “The currency reaped by government companies every three months is around $10 billion. What is it spent on?... Why did the government sell 61 tons of gold coins at half price to a number of people?”
Another Majlis member by the name of Mohammad Hossein Farhangi also raised critical questions.
“During your tenure we are witnessing increasing recession and 1,500 factories have closed down during this period. Liquidity increasing by 2.3% during the last year has resulted in increasing tension in our markets,” he said.
Majlis member Seyyed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini touched on the highly sensitive topic of unemployment.
“Unemployment is the mother of all corruption in our country. Some families have five educated children who are all unemployed, even with PhDs… what happened to your plan to create jobs?... We shouldn’t be so weak in the face of sanctions. We can bypass sanctions. More than 5,000 production centers are closed down across the country,” he said.
Rouhani’s remarks were telling and shed light on the regime’s deep crises.
“On December 28, we suddenly saw a bunch of people in the streets chanting slogans, and the slogans slowly started to become norm breaking,” Rouhani said, admitting to the role of the recent uprisings as being the root of the problems his regime is faced with. “This was a very rare incident, which lured Mr. Trump to declare that he would be walking away from the nuclear deal.
“During the past seven or eight months why are we suddenly facing new conditions? Why are the people having doubts about the future? There are people who are even questioning the state’s power. We will not allow a bunch of anti-Iran figures in the White House take action against us(!). The White House will not be happy from the result of today’s session. We have no fear of America,” he said.
Majlis member Mojtaba Zolnour further criticizes Rouhani.
“You haven’t even chaired a single session focusing on how to fight the currency smuggling… You said all sanctions will be lifted on the first day of the Iran nuclear deal, including all non-nuclear sanctions. What happened? Why do we have problems with all the major banks? Are you the president of Switzerland? Or the Islamic republic? Do you expect to fool the people with mere claims and boasting about statistics? [U.S President Donald] Trump ruined the highly praised nuclear deal with a single strike,” he said.
Reuters cited Rouhani’s remarks in the Majlis saying many people have lost their hopes in the future of the Islamic republic and are questioning the state’s power.
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