Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was grappling yesterday with a new political crisis that has weakened his standing even among his hardline supporters as he prepares to unveil a new government.
Ahmadinejad has come under fire over the sacking of his intelligence minister on Sunday and was dealt another blow when his culture minister quit over what he said was a weakened government.
Iran has been in turmoil since Ahmadinejad’s bitterly disputed re-election in a June 12 presidential poll triggered a wave of mass public protests and unrest.
The post-election chaos has also exposed deep divisions within the ruling elite in the Islamic republic and led to open criticism of not only Ahmadinejad but also supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“A chaotic day for the government,” thundered the front-page headline of the conservative Tehran Emrouz newspaper after the weekend Cabinet drama.
The Mehr news agency quoted an “informed source” as saying Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was sacked following a “verbal quarrel” with Ahmadinejad at a Cabinet meeting over his controversial pick for first vice president.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie finally stepped down as first vice president on Saturday after the all-powerful Khamenei intervened in the crisis and personally ordered Ahmadinejad to dismiss him.
Ejeie’s dismissal has set off a chorus of criticism even among the conservative wing in Iran just days before Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in again on Aug. 5 and then set about forming a new cabinet.
MP Ali Motahari urged Ahmadinejad to “control his nerves.”
“It looks as if he is intentionally bringing tension to the country. If the removal of the minister is because of this [objections to Rahim Mashaie’s appointment] it is an ugly act because then it becomes a personal matter and has nothing to do with the country’s interests,” he said.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
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A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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