Rejecting Khatami Was a Precondition for Confirmation

Rooz Online

As the Majlis confirmation hearings for Rowhani’s cabinet nominees slowly lapse into history, more details emerge about the rejection of three of the nominees. Until now, news reports indicated the role that Mehdi Chamran, the head of Tehran city council, played in the rejection of the three candidates.

The same time, however, Jaafar Mili-Monfared revealed that Majlis deputies had asked him to reject and denounce former president Mohammad Khatami in order to get confirmed for the designated cabinet post.

Speaking with Shargh newspaper on this topic, Mili-Monfared has said, “I am proud of my professional record over the last decade and am not willing to denounce anyone for the sake of getting to a post.” He also referenced an earlier controversial act that regime stalwarts consider a benchmark for a person’s support of the ruling circles and the supreme leader which is the sit-in staged by the sixth Majlis (during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency). “At the time I was the caretaker of a cabinet ministry and some Majlis deputies had questions on that, in addition to questions regarding the 18 Tir events,” he added.

Mohammad Ali Najafi, Jafar Mili-Monfared and Masoud Soltanifar were president Mohammad Rowhani’s cabinet designees for heading the three ministries of Education, Science and Sports, respectively and who had failed to get confirmed by the Majlis. Najafi failed by a single vote.

Mili-Monfared said this regarding his arrest and the distribution of interrogation documents, “The Islamic Teachers Association (Anjome Islami Modaresan) held a session after the 2009 elections and following unrest in which some 80 faculty members participated. Then a group raided the meeting and arrested some of the professors. They held them for a few hours and then released them with an apology. The arrest lasted about 4 hours and not 24 as claimed by some. That sheet of paper too was not an interrogation document but merely contained the name and specifications of a person with a description of what needed to be done.”

Earlier, speaking with Sharq newspaper Majlis Representative Ali Motahari had accused the ministry of intelligence in playing a role Majlis’s negative vote to some of the cabinet designees. “It is clear that some Majlis representatives have been cooperating with certain individuals from government executive agencies. Copying and distributing interrogation sheets was an unlawful act and remains questionable. The minister’s role in the distribution of the interrogation sheet is a crime because this resulted in that some representatives decided not to vote for a candidate. It is not good for Majlis representative to work with intelligence officers this way. They should not be working to have a minister disqualified.”

In the meantime, Bahar newspaper issued a news report in which it writes that Mehdi Chamran, the head of Tehran’s City Council, played a role in the Mohammad Ali Najafi’s disqualification. It said that Tehran’s City Council played a role in Najafi’s rejection. To prove its case, it displayed a letter purportedly sent by Chamran to the Majlis’ Ali Larijani in which he calls Najafi’s words unrealistic. Chamran should have consulted with us prior to making a decision.

After Najafi was rejected by a vote of no-confidence in the Majlis, president Rowhani appointed him to head the National Heritage organization. Bahar also reported that Najafi had misused public funds.

Yet another source is Gholamreza Tajgardoon, a member of the presiding board of the Majlis had said, “There have been efforts by the city council to have Najafi disqualified by Majlis representatives.”

But Bahar also said that Chamran’s letter to Larijani was not the only document regarding Chamran’s violations.

After the confirmation of the cabinet, Majlis speaker Ali Larijani had said, “It is possible that some Majlis representatives receive data from the outside which by itself is not wrong. He said he even thanked those who had provided the information.