IT was the first time since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that the parliament had summoned the country’s president to answer questions.

    Ahmadinejad, accompanied by eight members of his administration, attended the parliament’s questioning session. The questioning went ahead following a motion signed by 75 hardline lawmakers Feb. 7, who said they wanted Ahmadinejad to appear before the Majlis (parliament) and answer questions about his administration’s policies, as well as the appointment and removal of key officials.

    Ahmadinejad’s administration was also accused of a number of inefficiencies regarding implementing subsidy reform plan and controlling unbounded inflation, mismanagement of the government’s budget in allocating funds to vital projects in major cities and even challenging the supreme leader’s authority.

    The move came after a power struggle between Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei spilled into public view last year.

    In the questioning, Ahmadinejad often took a light-hearted tone.

    When the MP pronouncing the list of questions overran his allotted 15 minutes, the president said he, too, would extend his reply beyond his permitted time.

    Ahmadinejad rejected attempts to embarrass him with questions focusing on Iran’s economy, his perceived weakened loyalty to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his arguments to loosen up Islamic rules on dress for women and on gender relations.

    The president was asked about how his administration had handled the economy and why he had not helped the mayors of Tehran and elsewhere as expected. He responded that he had done so, saying he had earmarked the equivalent of US$2 billion for that purpose but the money had not been used.

    Economic growth was strong, he asserted, and higher prices “had nothing to do” with his 2010 decision to scrap subsidies for staples and fuel and replace them with a monthly US$35 cash handout to Iranians, he said. As for the weakened currency, “the games played in the foreign exchange and gold market have other reasons, which in due time I will explain to the people,” he said.

    Ahmadinejad was also asked why he had sacked former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki while he was on a mission to Senegal. He replied that Mottaki had been told that he was no longer the foreign minister before he went to Senegal, and should not have gone there at all.

    Lawmakers also quizzed about his attempt to fire intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi in April. When Khamenei vetoed the move, Ahmadinejad retreated from the public eye for 11 days, skipping Cabinet meetings.

    Asked about that absence, Iran’s Press TV quotes the president as responding: “It was said I stayed at home for 11 days. This is one of those things! Ahmadinejad staying home and resting? Most people tell us to rest for one day and make time for yourself.”

    The president’s views on enforcing the wearing of head scarves and other Islamic rules were also challenged. Ahmadinejad said that he believes cultural issues cannot be resolved by force and aggression. Rather, the people must be educated and abide by those rules of their own accord, he said.

    The president finished by urging lawmakers to award him a top grade for his performance. “We answered the questions and said some extra things. It would be unfriendly and disrespectful if you give (me a mark) less than an A,” he said, according to Press TV.

    “So far no major violation has been proved against my government... If you rate us at less than 100 percent, it would be unfair and cowardly,” Ahmadinejad told lawmakers at the end of a near-hour long reply, which was broadcast on state radio.

    After Ahmadinejad left parliament, several lawmakers complained that he had insulted them by taking a casual attitude regarding his “breaking the law” while in office.

    They criticized Speaker Ali Larijani for not warning the president about his attitude in parliament.

    As he answered the lawmakers’ questions, Ahmadinejad said: “I am joking with you. After all, it is the new year and we should be jovial.”

    The lawmakers complained to Larijani that affairs of state are not a joke. They accused the president of taking the session too lightly and simply repeating his usual arguments rather than properly answering the questions.

    “The president didn’t respond to any of the questions from the petitioning 79 lawmakers, and he insulted all of them,” said one, Mostafa Kavakebian, quoted by the Mehr news agency.

    Khamenei, the ultimate authority in the Islamic republic, gained ground in his power struggle with Ahmadinejad earlier this month as many of the candidates he backed came out on top in parliamentary elections.

    Many observers said the underlying issue of the election was whether voters backed the president, who has been embroiled in growing rivalry with Khamenei.

    Khamenei publicly supported Ahmadinejad’s controversial re-election victory during the dispute over the 2009 ballot results.

    But tensions have flared between the two leaders over the past year, particularly since the supreme leader overruled the president’s decision to fire the intelligence minister.

    The internal political tensions have coincided with increased outside pressure on Iran from the United States and other countries over Tehran’s nuclear program.

    The fact the interrogation took place, however, highlighted Ahmadinejad’s slipping fortunes as he sees out the end of his second and final mandate, which expires next year.

    Khamenei has over the past year curbed Ahmadinejad in his ambitions to expand power and influence, overruling him when he tried to sack his intelligence minister in 2011 and keeping him on a tight leash on policy decisions.

    The 290-member parliament, which already has a majority intent on curtailing the president’s authority, is to have an even smaller pro-Ahmadinejad minority when it is reconstituted at the end of May, following elections early this month.

    A total 79 MPs signed a petition in February demanding Ahmadinejad appear for the grilling.

    In recent years, some Iranian lawmakers had put forward a number of motions meant to summon the president to the Majlis, but those proposals were later withdrawn for political considerations.

    Observers believe that the new motion raised by the conservative lawmakers is linked to political rivalries between the president and the conservative hardliners in the March 2 parliamentary elections and the 2013 presidential elections.

    In the first round of the ninth parliamentary elections in the Islamic republic March 2, the president and his supporters were dealt a heavy political blow by the hardliner conservatives who are loyal to the supreme leader and won most of the seats of the Majlis.

    In Iranian law, summoning a president to parliament is a serious step that could lead to impeachment, but analysts of Iranian politics said it was highly unlikely that Ahmadinejad would be impeached, a prospect the Parliament has often threatened. But some said the interrogation further diminished the prospects that he would be able to cultivate a protégé to run in the 2013 presidential elections or even exert any political influence after his term expires.

    Since taking office in 2005, Ahmadinejad has become known on the international stage as the face of Iran’s defiance over its nuclear program and hostility toward Israel. He was sworn in for a second term in August 2009 after disputed election results set off a bloody government crackdown against street protesters.

    By the summer of 2010, Ahmadinejad appeared to have stamped out public displays of opposition, and seemed to be challenging the older conservative imams who had been the guardians of public authority since the 1979 revolution. He attempted to build his own patronage system and source of financing, separate from the intelligence network loyal to Khamenei, to elect candidates in the 2012 parliamentary elections and, most important, in the 2013 presidential race.(SD-Agencies)