Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday summoned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to answer questions about ?irregularities? related to his handling of the country?s struggling economy, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported. He is required to appear before Parliament within the month, the report said.
It was the latest salvo in a domestic power struggle involving Mr. Ahmadinejad, his political opponents and the country?s conservative clerics that has simmered beneath Iran?s bellicose statements and increasing international tension with the West over its nuclear program. It would be the first time since the 1979 revolution that the Parliament successfully compelled testimony from an Iranian president, The Associated Press reported.
His testimony is likely to come just weeks before parliamentary elections in March, intensifying the political conflict that has surrounded Mr. Ahmadinejad and his allies since his re-election victory in a disputed presidential election in 2009.
Amid a sharp economic downturn and steep inflation, Iranian authorities have also faced a wide-ranging, $2.6 billion banking scandal. Dozens of people have been arrested in what authorities have called an embezzlement scheme, and opponents of Mr. Ahmadinejad have repeatedly accused his close associates of ties to the main players in the scandal.
Lawmakers tried unsuccessfully in the fall to oust Mr. Ahmadinejad?s finance minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, who oversaw the country?s economy during the period in which Iranian authorities said the alleged fraud took place.
Questions for Mr. Ahmadinejad were likely to touch on international concerns and domestic issues as well, The A.P. reported, and could revive a public clash between the president and the country?s hard-line clerics, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The clerics have accused Mr. Ahmadinejad of leading a ?deviant current? that would challenge their rule.
Lawmakers attempted to summon Mr. Ahmadinejad last year only to fall several votes short of the one-quarter of the 290 members required. The state news agency said 79 lawmakers supported the motion on Tuesday, forcing the president to testify and potentially setting up a very public confrontation in the coming weeks.
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