Monday, May 23, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
by Farshid Motahari, dpa, Berlin
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will run the Oil Ministry despite a legal ban, his legal deputy said Sunday.
Ahmadinejad last week dismissed oil minister Massoud Mirkazemi and took over the ministry himself, which would have also made him rotating chairman at June's OPEC meeting in Vienna.
But Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, rejected the plan as illegal and said that Ahmadinejad could not run the Oil Ministry as caretaker.
The president's legal deputy, Fatemeh Bodaghi, told ISNA news agency that the decision has already been made, as the Guardian Council could only decide on decisions to be made but not on those already been made. Therefore, Ahmadinejad would remain caretaker of the ministry, she said.
Ahmadinejad had argued that he planned to trim the cabinet, and one of his decisions was to abolish the Oil Ministry and merge it with the Energy Ministry. The plan led to wide-spread criticism in Parliament.
Ahmadinejad is involved in a row with Iran's clergy and conservative factions over his reform plans, which include reducing the cabinet from 21 to 17 ministries.
As caretaker of the Oil Ministry, Ahmadinejad would also chair the OPEC meeting next month in Vienna, where protests against the Iranian president are reportedly being planned.
Copyright (c) 2011, dpa, Berlin
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