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Iran MP warns against commander as interior minister
AFP - Thursday, September 3
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) - - A reformist Iranian MP warned on Wednesday against appointing a military officer as interior minister as the debate on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cabinet spilled over to a another day day.
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Since Sunday, Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has been debating on the president's new 21-member cabinet line-up and had been due to hold a confidence motion on it on Wednesday.
But the candidates for the oil and energy ministers have still to make their presentations to lawmakers, so the vote of confidence is now expected for Thursday.
Ahmadinejad's choice for the crucial interior job is the current defence minister and military commander Mostafa Mohammad Najjar. He came under intense scrutiny as a reformist MP objected his candidacy.
"A military man as interior minister signals to the outside world that the country's political atmosphere is being militarised," said Jamshid Ansari.
Najjar is a top commander in the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. One of the most powerful institutions in Iran, it was set up in the wake of the 1979 revolution to defend the Islamic republic from internal and external threats.
The Basij, a volunteer militia force that is a unit of the Guards, was extensively used to crack down on people protesting what they said was the fraudulent re-election of Ahmadinejad on June 12.
Those protests sparked the worst crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic, dividing its powerful clerical groups and shaking the very pillars of the regime.
Mohammad Najjar strongly defended his nomination.
"I am proud to be a military man and if I was unprepared for the interior minister's job, I would not have opted for it. I am aware of the challenges facing Iran," he said as he countered the criticisms.
He said Iran needed to strengthen its police force in order to "combat social vices such as drug trafficking."
Ruhollah Jani Abbaspour, a conservative MP, defended him.
"In many countries, which pretend to be democracies, we can see military men in cabinets ... for example Colin Powell was the secretary of state in the US," he said.
Those who will detail their plans on Thursday are Masoud Mirkazemi, the current commerce minister who has been named to the oil ministry, and Mohammad Aliabadi, for the energy job.
The oil ministry is important in Iran -- OPEC's second-largest exporter -- as earnings from crude sales abroad amount to 80 percent of the country's foreign revenue.
Iranian media say Mirkazemi is expected to come under careful scrutiny because he lacks expertise in the vital sector.
He was also nearly impeached twice as commerce minister over the rise in basic commodity prices.
In 2005, when Ahmadinejad was presenting his first-ever cabinet, parliament twice rejected his nominees for the oil ministry, one withdrew before a vote was taken, and lawmakers finally confirmed his fourth choice.
So far, lawmakers have not opposed the president's nominees for the communication, economy, agriculture, justice and defence ministries.
Two women cabinet nominees -- education and welfare -- are expected to be rejected as they lack ministerial experience and face opposition from the country's hardline clerics.
The woman set to head the health ministry, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, is expected to be confirmed after she presented an elaborate four-year plan on Tuesday.
If that occurs, Dastjerdi would be the first woman to hold a cabinet post in the Islamic republic's 30-year history.
Debate over the selection of proposed science minister Kamran Daneshjoo, who headed the election commission and had come in for intense flak during the turmoil over Ahmadinejad's re-election, proved a heated affair on Wednesday.
Iranian media say he obtained his PhD degree from a fictitious college, but parliament speaker Ali Larijani defended him, saying he obtained his certificate in Tehran after he was kicked out of a London college for "participating in a rally opposing" Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie.
MP Hossein Tamini opposed Daneshjoo's candidacy.
"He is considered as a political figure ... I do not think it is appropriate to have him lead the ministry," he said.
But powerful conservative MP Ali Motahari backed Daneshjoo, saying his "academic qualifications were higher than his political activities."
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