Iran Cabinet Minister Facing Impeachment
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Monday, October 27, 2008
TEHRAN, Oct. 26 -- The Iranian parliament is preparing to impeach Interior Minister Ali Kordan next month for "dishonesty" after his supposed Oxford University law degree turned out to be a fake.
The move would push President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad perilously close to having to submit his entire cabinet to a review by parliament, which is led by one of the president's key political opponents.
"The atmosphere of the parliament is very good for impeaching him and, God willing, he will be impeached," parliament member Ali Motahari, a former political ally of Ahmadinejad's, told the Iranian Students News Agency.
Kordan's ministry organizes Iran's presidential elections, the next of which is slated for June. The impeachment vote is set for Nov. 4.
In August, just days after Kordan was sworn in as interior minister, Oxford posted a statement on its Web site saying it had no record of him receiving a degree from the university, as he had claimed.
Many analysts predict that Kordan will resign. "We expected that Kordan would resign before the impeachment bill was officially received, but we still believe it's not too late," Mostafa Kavakebian, a member of Ahmadinejad's parliamentary faction, told ISNA. "I earnestly ask him to resign so that the time of the parliament and the government is not wasted."
Kordan's impeachment could jeopardize Ahmadinejad's cabinet. Iran's constitution requires that the cabinet be resubmitted for approval if more than half of the ministers are replaced. Ahmadinejad has replaced nine of 21 ministers.
"That would be a gigantic issue," said Iraj Jamshidi, political editor of the Etemaad newspaper, which is critical of the government. "Economic dissatisfaction is high, there is a huge drop in oil prices, and we will be facing a huge budget deficit. Imagine the whole cabinet needs to get a new review in these problematic times."
