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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Top Iranians Trade Barbs in Rare Public Feud |
| 2013-02-04 |
| Two of the heavyweights in Iranian politics attacked each other with accusations of blackmail, corruption and mafia-like rule, in a boisterous and unprecedented public confrontation that brings a simmering political feud into the open months ahead of presidential elections. By Monday morning, YouTube and most Iranian news websites had posted transcripts, audio and video recordings of the exchange between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and parliament speaker Ali Larijani during a public parliamentary session Sunday. Mr. Ahmadinejad, appearing in parliament to defend the impeachment of his labor minister, played a video that he suggested allegedly implicates the parliamentary speaker and his brothers—an influential family close to Iran's supreme leader—of financial corruption and abuse of power. "There are some people who are doing things that make the internal pressures equal to pressure we have from outside," said Mr. Ahmadinejad, during whose tenure tough international sanctions have been slapped on Iran over its nuclear program. "My government is constantly under attack and pressure. How am I supposed to defend it?" Mr. Larijani, the parliamentary speaker, called the president a blackmailer and waved him out of the chamber with a slang equivalent of "get lost." Parliament turned chaotic during the session, with lawmakers screaming and throwing their fists in the air to protest the video. Some lawmakers were restrained by their colleagues. One was escorted out of the chamber. The exchange appeared to mark several firsts in Iranian politics—the first time an Iranian president has used a public forum to launch potentially criminal allegations about another official, especially incorporating incriminating documents, which is another rarity in Iranian politics. In a political culture that places much stock in public politeness, it was also appeared to be the first time a parliament speaker has levied insults and counteraccusations in the face of a sitting president. |
| Posted by:tipper |