Abdolnaser Hemmati was removed from his job after 182 of the 273 lawmakers voted against him amid widespread complaints due to rising costs of living.
The Iranian economy minister was bounced each after parliament voted to reject him amid rising and falling inflation.
Abdolnaser Hemmati has been removed from his duties after 182 of the 273 lawmakers voted against him, conservative council president Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on Sunday, just six months after the government of moderate Masoud Pezeshkian took office.
In 2015, the Iranian rial was worth 32,000 in the US dollar, but by the time Pezeshkian took office in July it had plummeted to around $600,000 in open market dollars.
As regional tensions escalated recently, it fell even further, exchanging dollars for dollars at roughly 950,000 in exchange shops in Tehran and on the streets. The devaluation of the real has led to widespread public dissatisfaction due to rising costs of living and rising inflation as the new year approaches this month.
Attended during a meeting at the Islamic Council on Sunday, Pezeshkian defended former central bank governor and presidential candidate Hemati. He told lawmakers: …We must shape war. ”
“The economic issues in society today have nothing to do with one person. We can’t blame it all on one person,” he added.
During the fiat each procedure, Hemati MP Mohamad Qasim Osmani argued that inflation and rising exchange rates were not the fault of the current government.
He pointed to the fiscal deficit left behind by the control of hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, who said it contributed to economic instability.
The first big blow to the Pezeschkian government
Hardline lawmakers who have attacked Pezeshkian’s team since the government took office argued that Henmati contributed to Iran’s economic instability and could be “dangerous” to the country if allowed to take office.
Longtime hard-line lawmaker Hosseinali Hajidaligani accused the domestic currency of intentionally underestimating government funds in a short-term windfall that covers the fiscal deficit at the cost of hurting the economy and the average Iranian.
Hemmati refused to file charges, noting that inflation had dropped by 10%. He admitted that inflation remains high and stands at 35%. He told lawmakers he warned that his team is working hard to deal with the issue, but that the process will take time.
Hemati stressed that Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with a world power that was unilaterally abandoned by US President Donald Trump in 2018 is currently at a critical time. The Western Party of Contracts will only be until October, when it activates a “snapback” mechanism that could revive all UN sanctions against Iran.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei stresses that Tehran will not negotiate under the “maximum pressure” policy of the Hawks in Washington. Pezeschkian told Parliament on Sunday that he wanted to negotiate after the Supreme Leader’s remarks but changed his stance.
The Economic Minister’s petition for unity was ultimately ignored, and the vote for Henmati was marked only when Parliament Hardline succeeded in eliminating high-ranking officials in the management of the centralist Pezeschkian. However, since the ministers who were fired each have been appointed special adviser to the president many times before, it is unlikely that Hemati will be separated from the government.
Aiming to challenge and influence government policies, some lawmakers continue their efforts to expel former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from his position as strategic adviser to the president.
Ramping local mismanagement and corruption combined with decades of US-led sanctions have hit Iran’s economy. With the spread of Israel’s war with Gaza and the blows that have been addressed in recent months by the Iran-led “axis of resistance,” public concern over further economic instability is only rising.
For the past three months, Iran has been forced to shut down key services across the country due to the prolonged energy crisis.
US and Israeli officials, including Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have regularly threatened to bomb Iran and its nuclear and energy facilities more than Tehran’s advanced nuclear program.