Friendly remark lands Iranian MP in trouble

Published on Saturday 16 August 2008 19:51

THERE are some things, Iran's parliament has decided, that a public official should simply not be allowed to say.

Threats of a "crushing response" to Israeli aggression seem to be fine, as a representative of Iran's supreme leader recently demonstrated. But suggesting that Iran is a friend of the Israeli people, well, that is an "unforgivable mistake", parliament declared last week.

In a statement signed by some 200 members of the 290-seat assembly, Iranian MPs called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dismiss Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the vice-president for tourism, after he repeated comments that "we are a friend of all people in the world, even Israelis and Americans".

In his comments, Mashai, an ally of Ahmadinejad and one of his in-laws, specified "for a thousandth time" that his country was against Israel, not Jews.

But parliament was not placated. "We do not recognise a country called Israel and so we cannot recognise a nation called Israel," it said in a statement.

"If Mr Mashai does not have the political awareness that the Israeli people are the same people who have occupied the homes of millions of innocent and oppressed Palestinians and have created the army of the Zionist regime, he has no right to hold such a position."

Mashai was the second member of Ahmadinejad's cabinet to come under fire last week. Parliament also ordered an investigation into the academic credentials of Ali Kordan, the interior minister who was approved by parliament this month despite great opposition. He secured the post only after Ahmadinejad said he had the personal backing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The interior ministry is in a delicate position because the minister would be responsible for carrying out the presidential elections in 2010.

Kordan had claimed he had obtained an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 2000 for "opening a new chapter" in comparative legal studies. But one of Ahmadinejad's opponents, Ahmad Tavakoli, inquired about the degree's authenticity and posted the answer on his website.

"The University of Oxford has no record of Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the university," the site said, adding that the professors who had signed Kordan's certificate did not work in the field of law or ever signed certificates.