| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Ahmadinejad pushes cabinet, says no to liberalism |
| 2005-08-21 |
| Iran's hardline President Mahmood Ahmadinejad put his proposed cabinet to parliament, lashing out at the West and liberalism and promising a government that will "promote virtue and prohibit vice." Signaling his shock election win had delivered a clean break from the previous reformist administration of Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad pledged to fight off liberalism that he argued threatened Islamic values. "The international community they go so far as to condemn us. What sort of balance is this? This is injustice and oppression, and our nation will not accept this in international affairs," Ahmadinejad, who took office on August 3, told parliament on Sunday. It was a clear reference to threats against Iran in the wake of Tehran's decision to resume sensitive nuclear work earlier this month. The clerical regime has refused to return to a full freeze of nuclear fuel work -- the focus of fears the country is seeking atomic weapons. Ahmadinejad also vowed a more assertive trade policy. "Currently we are importing from some countries billions of dollars whereas they are not buying our oil and they are also not buying our products," he said in a speech one MP described as "more about ideals than strategies". "These countries should be thankful to us because we are helping their economies boom, but they are not thankful and are looking at us as if we were indebted to them," the 49-year-old former commando told the conservative-controlled assembly. The speech to the Majlis, carried live on state television and radio, opened a debate that could last several days on the former Tehran mayor's proposed 21-member cabinet. Although right-wingers dominate the assembly, the procedure may not be a mere formality. Of those nominated, only two have previously held ministerial posts while the others are mostly unknowns. Ahmadinejad said four principles would guide the policy of his new government: "expansion of justice, serving people, elevating the country financially and spiritually, and kindness to people". "Liberal thought justifies and recognises all abnormalities and deviations (and) isolates the values defined by religious training such as equality, forgiveness, selflessness, chastity and immaculacy," he told the 290-seat Majlis. "Our nation does not and will not tolerate such a thing," he said, vowing a "culture of spirituality" in the Islamic republic. "We should expand a culture that promotes virtue and prohibits vice, and also favourable to Islamic traditions such as respect to parents, visiting relatives, generosity to orphans and philanthropy... and we should fortify the education, universities, mosques, seminaries and genuine cultural groups." Ahmadinejad has allocated political posts -- such as the interior ministry, intelligence and culture -- to fellow ultra-conservatives, while technocrats have been appointed to head the oil and foreign ministries. Since Ahmadinejad announced his team earlier this month, eyebrows have been raised over some nominees' qualifications -- including Ali Saidloo, nominated for the sensitive oil ministry, science portfolio nominee Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi and health ministry nominee Kamran Baqeri-Lankarani. "If the parliament behaves reasonably and logically, some nominees will not receive the vote of confidence. If the parliament behaves politically, all the ministers would be approved," Mohammad Khoshchehreh, an MP from Tehran, told IRNA. One MP, Hassan Sobhani, was quoted as saying by IRNA that "strategies to remove administrative corruption were missing" from Ahmadinejad's programme, and cautioned that faced with globalisation, "we should not be passive and wait for the Islamic civilisation to appear." Another MP, Bijan Shahbazkhani, warned that government plans to give ordinary Iranians a share of the nation's oil wealth appeared to contradict efforts to contain inflation. But Iran's all-powerful leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has given his backing to Ahmadinejad's line-up, calling Friday for the Majlis to "complete its legal duty" so the "the new administration is in place as soon as possible". "Democracy", where one man rules by decree (Khamenei), is no democracy, it is dictatorship. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 Jules - 65 to 70 percent of HIV positive in Iran are drug users. The number given by you (61,000) in fact can be much higher (infections doubled in last three years in Iran)- there are over one million drug addicts in this ultra-islamic country. Best regards... |
| Posted by: Matt K. 2005-08-21 23:58 |
| #3 Every country that closes its eyes to HIV suffers a horrible fate. Socially conservative states are ravaged by aids and Iran/ Middle east are prime for the worst of it. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-08-21 23:49 |
| #2 Good post, jules2. I knew they had AIDS problems over there, and through much of the MidEast, but I didn't realize the fallout. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-08-21 23:04 |
| #1 I just read an article in Foreign Policy magazine about AIDS/HIV in Muslim countries. In it was noted that 1) In some parts of Iran, 60% of people with AIDS/HIV are taking ther own lives within the first year of diagnosis; 2) An estimated 61,000 people in Iran today are HIV positive. President Ahmadinejad's theory will soon be put to the test. So they are going to push chastity and virtue? Ok. If everyone actually follows his advice, we should see negligible growth of HIV from its current levels in Iran. However, if, as I suspect, people don't do what they preach and continue to secretly visit (infected) prostitutes, have sex with (infected) partners outside of marriage and use contaminated needles for illegal drug injections, we will watch HIV/AIDS grow dramatically in Iran. The new reality show in Iran: Sexual Hypocrisy-The Deadly New "Virtue" in Iran. |
| Posted by: jules 2 2005-08-21 22:08 |