Questions Salehi Might Ask Himself

21 June 2011 | 02:41 Code : 13951 Middle East.

After his resignation from the position of Secretary General of the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad, Mohammad Sharif Malekzade was assigned a position at the Foreign Ministry. This brought about criticism of the Foreign Ministry apparatus from the Conservative party.

IRD: Just until a few days ago most of the criticism from the Conservative party went to a specific trend in the government and the merging of the Petroleum Ministry. This spectrum calls their opposing trend in the government the “Deviation”, and is concerned over their takeover of important and critical positions in the government. Therefore, they try to stop this group from gaining power through all the means they have at their disposal. However, they say the numbers in this group is very small.

After the disputes over Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, in the aftermath of the resignation of the Intelligence Minister, and after the government was temporarily able to get away with assigning Aliabadi as the Petroleum Minister, now Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh’s transfer to the Foreign Ministry as the Deputy Minister for Administration and Finances has raised many disputes. The parliament (Majles) has threatened to impeach FM Ali Akbar Salehi, as they believe this decision was not made by him and he should either remove Malekzade or face impeachment by the parliament.

Some official sources in the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad confirm that Malekzadeh has resigned and stated that he was initially transferred from the Foreign Ministry to that position, and now wants to return to his previous duties. He is supposed to take the position of Hossain Farahi.

Fars New Agency writes, “Malekzadeh is an element related to the deviation trend and his conduct in the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad received much criticism”.

This conservative media has always supported Ahmadinejad’s government during the past six years. However, political experts believe that Malekzadeh’s appointment is a suspicious issue since parliament had started to investigate the conduct of officials at the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad from a year ago.

According to this news agency, Malekzadeh was one of the managers of Abdullah Jasbi at Azad University. He was also the head of the University information center and Jasbi’s advisor. After becoming Ahmadinejad’s private secretary, Mashaei appointed Malekzadeh as the head of the citizen rights of Iranians abroad. Later, he was appointed as the Secretary General of the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad. Malekzadeh was the deputy of Iran’s Tourism Organization, and he was also the chairman of the board at Iranol Oil Company.

Now a member of the parliamentary board is trying to remove Malekzadeh through putting the Foreign Minister under pressure. Mohammad Dehghan has told Mehr News Agency, “I hope that Salehi removes Malekzadeh as soon as possible, maintains his independence, and breaks the pressure of the deviation trend. If these do not take place the parliament will certainly have to impeach him”.

It seems that these pressures are due to the fact that the conservatives do not see their expectations met by Ahmadinejad and are actually faced with his persistence on maintaining people close to Mashaei in the government. Mohammad Dehghan also says, “The deviant trend is after taking over all the ministries. We now witness that it has been able to create malfunctioning among some important ministries and no one is appointed as a minister without the confirmation of this trend.”

According to Dehghan, some key ministries are the targets of this trend. He also states, “We have recently understood that that this trend is trying to penetrate the foreign ministry with its staff at the Iranian Abroad Council. The conduct of the deviant trend is not good for the system and the system has been very patient with them, but they are taking advantage of this patience”.

He emphasized that “the parliament will not be reluctant to address this issue and will play an active role in this case; therefore we warn Salehi first since he has been confirmed by us, and our Foreign Minister should not be passive and accept whatever is dictated to him by the deviation trend.”

Ali Akbar Salehi, who according to many experts is an efficient minister in the Ahmadinejad government and has used all his power to resolve issues between Iran and other countries and has been able to stabilize Iran’s position in the region, is now stuck in the middle of the deviation plot and is prone to criticism and even impeachment. He now might ask himself whether his predecessors had to consult the parliament when they wanted to remove or appoint their managers or deputies. Did Manouchehr Motaki, who removed many efficient officials from this ministry, ever had to respond to parliament? Is this parliament different from the previous one? Was the diplomatic apparatus of the Islamic Republic at its ideal situation when Mottaki was at its helm? Isn’t the appointment of deputies among the responsibilities of the minister? Will he really be impeached, or is this only a threat to pressure Ahmadinejad?