Vote of Confidence for Rouhani’s Three New Ministers

On Tuesday, November 1st, Iran’s parliament gave its vote of confidence to three candidates for the ministries of culture and Islamic guidance, sports, and education. The vote was a victory for President Hassan Rouhani, who supported the candidates in the face of opposition from hardliners.

Parliament approved Reza Salehi Amiri 180-89 for the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance, Masoud Soltanifar 193-76 for the Ministry of Sports, and Fakhreddin Danesh Ashtiani 157-112 for the Ministry of Education.

The parliamentary session lasted around eight hours. President Rouhani defending candidates as well as his administration’s record. He said that his opponents’ accusations of corruption against his government paint a bad image of Iran for the world.

The thrust of his opponents’ attack was not, however, about corruption. They accused the three candidates of supporting protesters following the disputed 2009 presidential elections. They referred to the candidates as “seditionists” -- a designation they frequently apply to the 2009 protesters and to the politicians who did not publicly support Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei against the protesters.

The Security Pseudonym

During the session, Mojtaba Zolnoor, a hardline representative from Qom, took the unusual step of disclosing the “security pseudonym” of Reza Salehi Amiri, a former security official. He said that, after the 2009 election protests, Amiri and eight other security officials wrote a letter to Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni under the pseudonym “Seyed Reza Fallah,” in which they supported the protesters. This letter has come up before, but this was the first time Amiri’s alleged pseudonym has emerged.

Mahmoud Shokri, a representative from Gilan, also accused Soltanifar of supporting reformists. He cited an incident that took place during the parliamentary elections of 2004, when the Guardian Council, which vets all candidates, disqualified many reformists. MPs who opposed the disqualifications staged a protest on the floor of the parliament and resigned. Rouhani’s opponents objected that Soltanifar was among those who resigned in sympathy with the reformists.

Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, another prominent Rouhani opponent, claimed that Danesh Ashtiani, the candidate for education minister, had been arrested for backing the 2009 protesters. Ashtiani denied the claim. In October 2014, Hosseini had failed to get a vote of confidence for the Ministry of Science after Rouhani’s opponents had made similar claims.

“The Culture Colonel”

Ehsan Ghazizadeh, a representative from Razavi Khorasan, used Salehi Amiri’s security past to make a joke at Rouhani’s expense. “He avoided becoming a colonel; now he is introducing a colonel for culture,” he said. Then he asked the candidate whether he will deal with culture as Reza Salehi Amiri or as “Reza Fallah,” his alleged pseudonym. Ehsan Ghazizadeh is a cousin of Hasan Ghazizadeh, Rouhani’s current Health Minister, so his sarcasm was somewhat unexpected.

Proclamations of Loyatly to the Islamic Republic

Fakhreddin Danesh Ashtiani, who was approved for education minister, received only 157 votes, which was the lowest among the three candidates. But the fact that he was approved shows that reformists and Rouhani supporters acted in a well-organized manner. In their speech in defense of the candidates, they repeatedly told their opponents to refrain from calling reformists and supporters of Rouhani “seditionists.” They declared their loyalty to the political system of the Islamic Republic and to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Rouhani’s administration now seems more cohesive than ever. Saleh Amiri and Soltanifar, in particular, are close allies of the president, having served him as advisors even before he came to office.

Iran’s next presidential election will take place in spring 2017. Changes in Rouhani’s government are unlikely to significantly affect the outcome, but his success in parliament may embolden his supporters.  In the previous parliament, hardliners did whatever they could to obstruct Rouhani, but they have now lost their momentum. For the moment at least, the moderates are getting their way.