Tehran’s Daily Newspaper Review

“It’s the New Year’s eve, so let’s have fun.” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with supposed-to-be-fun remarks, infuriated the parliament on Wednesday, when he turned a first-time summoning of an Iranian president to the parliament into a thinly veiled sarcastic criticism of legislators. Strong reactions following the questioning session evinced how uncomfortable Ahmadinejad has made the legislators with his unique responses to their questions. “I wish to see Ahmadinejad’s impeachment,” said Ghodratollah Alikhani, traditionalist left-wing cleric, while Ahmad Tavakkoli, leading Principlist MP, hoped that there would be no need to “replace” Ahmadinejad.

Iran, the government’s mouthpiece, spoke of the “different vibe” created by the president when answering the MPs’ questions, and pointed to Ahmadinejad’s “serious quips coupled with arguments” in what it deemed a “political show” by Majles. The newspaper also announced the good news of an 18% increase in the average wage of workers, as approved by the Supreme Labor Council.

A banner headline on the front page of Jomhouri-ye Eslami covered the lawmakers’ response to the president’s speech in the parliament: “Ahmadinejad’s remarks were an insult to the parliament’s stature and citizens’ representatives,” the newspaper quoted offended legislators. The newspaper also covered the appointment by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of new members of the Council of Expediency Discernment, with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani retaining his post as the head of the council.

Kayhan’s top headline sounded neutral –exceptionally-- reading “the citizens’ representatives’ assessment of the President’s response”, and an objective report of the Wednesday proceedings in the parliament. “Who was the big loser of the year?” Kayhan’s editorial, reviewed the collection of Western countries’ anti-Iran strategies implemented throughout the Persian Year 1390. Reducing electoral turnout in the March parliamentary poll was the cardinal goal of Imperialism according to the author, as it was deemed to function as a catalyst to undermine the establishment’s domestic base, and deprive it of the position of a role model for the Arab Spring nations.

Shargh did not sound surprised about the president’s Wednesday performance, its report reading: “Ahmadinejad was what he is supposed to be,”, adding that the president broke his one-year silence with his own unique style which shocked the legislators. In Shargh’s editorial, Sadeq Zibakalam argued how the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s decision to keep Hashemi Rafsanjani’s at his position as the Chairman of the Council of Expediency Discernment bore the message of support for moderation and rationality, two supposed characteristics of Iran’s former president, which Zibakalam has always praised.