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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad Names Hard-Liners to Cabinet
2005-08-15
Iran's new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented a Cabinet to parliament on Sunday that featured known hard-liners in the foreign, interior and intelligence ministries. The conservative lawmaker Manouchehr Mottaki was nominated as foreign minister and a former hard-line deputy intelligence minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, was named as interior minister. The names suggest that Iran will move away from the moderate policies it pursued under the previous president, reformist Mohammad Khatami.

The nominated ministers are widely believed to be followers of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a noted conservative who has the final say on all state matters. The parliament has to pass a vote of confidence in the Cabinet before it takes office. Ahmadinejad named as intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei, a cleric whom reformist journalists regard as an unyielding opponent of press freedom. The proposed foreign minister, Mottaki, is a hard-liner who has criticized Iran's nuclear negotiations with the Europeans, saying the country should adopt a tougher position and not make concessions.
Posted by:Fred

#4  Good point BK.

The importance of Khamenei concurring on the appointments is due to the fact that Ahmadinejad was elected on a platform that, in part, promised to eliminate financial corruption and it is known that most of the financial corruption is the result of the Khamenei minions getting their paws on the granting of licenses, distributorships, etc.

If these guys (and its all guys) don't get prosecuted, the anti corruption part of Ahmadinejab's platform is dead. This will tick off some of the naive slumdwellers who actually believed the rhetoric.
Posted by: mhw   2005-08-15 13:57  

#3  all true, BJK
Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-08-15 09:54  

#2  all true, BJK
Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-08-15 09:54  

#1  Why does it say Ahmadinejad names cabinet, It is Khamenei who got him elected and calls all the shots. He has a hardline theocratic dictatorship, it is only natural he would have a hardline president and cabinet. And besides, what moderate reform did Khatami ever implement anyway?
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2005-08-15 08:11  

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