Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has unveiled a Cabinet boasting 11 new faces, including three women, in a line-up slammed on Thursday by leading lawmakers as inexperienced.
The list was submitted to parliament late on Wednesday, a fortnight after Ahmadinejad was sworn in following weeks of street protests by the opposition, which said the vote was rigged, the ISNA news agency said.
Members of parliament (MP) will begin examining the names tomorrow before holding a confidence vote on Aug. 30.
Analysts said Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election plunged the nation into its worst political crisis since the Islamic revolution, faced an uphill battle to win parliament’s approval for all the names on the list.
The president, however, defended his proposed team, saying on TV it was a “step forward and higher” than the previous one.
None of the 11 proposed new ministers has Cabinet-level experience, spurring a caution from parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani.
“The ministry is not a place for apprenticeship; it is a place that requires expertise and experience,” he was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.
The media also greeted the list unenthusiastically.
The reformist Mardomsalari headlined its front page story “A weaker Cabinet,” and the moderate conservative daily Tehran Emrouz described it as a “surprise Cabinet.”
Influential lawmaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar told the Mehr news agency some names on the list were likely to be rejected by parliament.
“Some of these men and women will not earn a vote and some are uncertain, unless they can make themselves known to the parliament within this week,” he said.
An MP from the southeastern city of Zahedan, Hossein Ali Shahriari, was quoted on parliament’s Web site as saying six proposed ministers were likely to fail the grade.
“We greatly stress the need for experience and we will not easily ignore this,” he said.
Ahemadinejad hit back in his televised remarks.
“Some have said four to five people will not secure a [positive] vote. How do you know? Is that a personal decision? How can you allow yourself to speak for the entire house?” Ahemadinejad asked.
The nomination of three women to the 21-member Cabinet is a first in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic, although in 1997 then-reformist Iranian president Mohammad Khatami appointed a woman to the post of vice president. ISNA said Ahmadinejad named Sousan Keshavarz, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi and Fatemeh Ajorlou as his ministers respectively of education, health and welfare and social security.
Ahmadinejad said women were “pioneers in the revolution. The three women were chosen after close examination. I am against belittling women. We have to carve out the way.”
The ministers of foreign affairs, economy, industries, cooperatives and transport have all retained their portfolios.
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