Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei Wants Irregularities Probe

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has appointed a panel to investigate “legal violations committed by the current administration,” according to Hamidreza Tarraghi, a member of the conservative party Motalefeh.

Over the past two years, Parliament has repeatedly accused the administration of violating parliamentary legislation. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has responded by saying his administration is among the most law-abiding ones ever seen in the history of the Islamic Republic.

Hamidreza Tarraghi criticized the large volume of disputes among the three government branches.

Ever since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fell into a dispute with Ayatollah Khamenei over the appointment of ministers, the president has faced stern criticism from the Islamic Republic’s political elite. Most recently, 100 MPs presented the speaker with a petition to summon the president before Parliament for questioning, over irregularities such as the delay in establishing the Ministry of Sports.

While some MPs have said the Supreme Leader does not support the plan to question Ahmadinejad, MP Ali Motahari, who helped to initiate the motion, has rejected that assertion, saying the Supreme Leader would not stand in the way of the law.

Meanwhile, several of Ahmadinejad’s allies have been arrested in recent months, accused of financial corruption or links to the so-called “deviant current,” which conservatives claim is trying throw the Islamic Republic off its course.

Ahmadinejad recently announced that if any member of his cabinet is arrested, he will publicize certain facts detrimental to the establishment.