Lawmakers Impeach Iranian Cabinet Minister

Support for President, Who Had Backed Ousted Interior Official, Seen as Waning

TEHRAN, Nov. 4 -- Iran's parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to impeach a cabinet minister who has been a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a political setback that reflects growing opposition among lawmakers to the president's policies.

Ahmadinejad faces heavy criticism for his backing of former interior minister Ali Kordan, who was impeached for having falsely claimed to hold an honorary law degree from Oxford University. An aide to Ahmadinejad was fired Sunday for trying to bribe several lawmakers to withdraw their support for the impeachment procedure.

The struggle over Kordan has exposed a growing divide in the parliament between the government's remaining backers and those who are abandoning it. Shifting alliances make it hard to determine the breakdown of support, but Tuesday's vote showed a dwindling of loyalists. Out of 290 deputies, 188 voted for the impeachment of Ahmadinejad's confidant, 45 voted against, 14 abstained and nine didn't vote at all. Thirty-four lawmakers did not show up for the vote.

"Ahmadinejad will have trouble on all fronts," said Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political analyst and well-known critic of the president. "Any big decision his government wants to execute first needs to be agreed by a hostile parliament."

The president's difficulties with parliament are also likely to complicate finding a new interior minister. Lawmakers must approve any candidate for the post, which includes responsibility for organizing elections.

"As the problems become deeper, those who were supporting Ahmadinejad will try to distance themselves in the face of the June 12th presidential elections," Zeidabadi said.

Kordan, who had been interior minister for three months, was voted out during a tumultuous parliamentary session broadcast live on Iranian state radio. He caused a storm by linking the lawmakers opposing him to foreign groups and anti-Iranian governments, often referred to here as "the enemy."

"Look how happy the enemy is that I'm being impeached. Look at the attacks to the system over this issue," he said during his defense, prompting dozens of lawmakers to boo.

"You, by your actions, are giving the enemy pretexts to attack us," responded Sattar Hedayatkhah, a former Ahmadinejad supporter.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad called the impeachment "not legal" and "unfair," and he refused to attend Tuesday's session.

The parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, rejected Ahmadinejad's allegation. "It is very clear that the impeachment is legal," he told the chamber.

Kordan is the 10th Iranian minister to leave office, either through impeachment or resignation, since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005. The cabinet consists of 21 ministers. The Iranian constitution states that if more than half of them are replaced, the president must submit his entire cabinet for review by parliament.

The situation has not arisen, however, since Iran became an Islamic republic after the 1979 revolution.

The political defeat will not change much for Ahmadinejad, said Amir Mohebbian, a political strategist.

"The president never focused on the political elite of the country," he said. "He went on many provincial trips because he feels that is where he will get his votes for the upcoming presidential elections. There are no trustworthy statistics to see if this strategy has increased or decreased his support among the masses."

Ahmadinejad has yet to announce whether he will seek reelection in June. "If he does, he will be a very weak candidate," Zeidabadi said. "Anybody who is in touch with the Iranian society, in cities and villages, realizes that Ahmadinejad doesn't have much support anymore."