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Iran President Sacks Cabinet's Sole Woman
[An Nahar] Iran's diminutive President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad has sacked Health Minister Marizeh Vahid Dastjerdi, the sole woman in his cabinet, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported on Thursday.

The minister had proposed price hikes for a number of medicines due to the plunge of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar and Western sanctions imposed on the country over its disputed nuclear program.

But Ahmadinejad was opposed to the price rises and dismissed the minister.

Although the sanctions do not directly target medicines, they limit their importation because of restrictions on financial transactions.

Iran produces 97 percent of the drugs on its market, but their ingredients are imported.

In October, an Iranian official acknowledged the price of locally produced medicines had increased by 15-20 percent in the past three months, and 20-80 percent for imported products.

Fatemeh Hashemi, head of the Foundation for Special Diseases, sent a letter to U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
in August asking him to make a case to the West for easing sanctions that are detrimental to patients.

Tehran is under different rounds of sanctions designed by the United States, European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and the U.N. Security Council to pressure it to curb its nuclear program.

Western powers suspect Iran is using the program to develop atomic weapons capability. The Islamic republic denies that and says its nuclear activities are purely peaceful.

Posted by: Fred 2012-12-28
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=358865