Manouchehr Mottaki says the Ahmadi-nejad Administration is lying when it says he was told before he left for Senegal that he was going to be replaced.
News reports said Mottaki was angry and declined to show up at the Foreign Ministry for the formal ceremony turning authority over to Acting Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi. But Mottaki says that too is a lie; he says no one ever invited him to the ceremony.
The firing of Mottaki is still one of the major topics of political debate two weeks after he was sacked. Mottaki is helping to fuel the debate with his description of what happened. But the main reason for the high level of attention is most likely that Majlis deputies have been forbidden to criticize the phase out of sanctions and seem to find the Mottaki firing a suitable substitute issue for flaying the president.
The focus isn’t the actual firing, since no one disputes that a president may fire a cabinet minister. The criticism is focused on the timing of the firing on December 13; Mottaki’s sacking was announced while he was in Senegal on an official mission.
In fact, it was a very sensitive mission as Mottaki was trying to calm Senegalese officials who are extremely suspicious after learning that Iranian weapons were being sent to next-door Gambia, where Senegalese rebels commonly take refuge. But that detail has not been communicated to the Iranian public.
One Majlis deputy, a frequent critic of President Ahmadi-nejad, has asserted that Mottaki was actually informed of his sacking by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade while the two men were meeting. Mottaki has said nothing about that, however, and that tidbit cannot be confirmed.
That report, however, helps fuel the major theme of the critics—that Ahmadi-nejad’s timing was a humiliating insult to Mottaki and made Iran look unprofessional and ridiculous in the eyes of foreigners.
A few days after the firing, First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi discussed the sacking with reporters. He was very kind to Mottaki and praised his activities and loyalty to the state.
But Rahimi denied Mottaki had been fired while on a foreign assignment. He said that a few days before traveling to Senegal, Mottaki met with Ahmadi-nejad to discuss the trip. “It was agreed in that meeting that Mr. Salehi would be introduced [as the new foreign minister], and Mr. Mottaki was aware of that before he left for Senegal.”
That ignored the fact that the announcement of the personnel change was made while Mottaki was in Senegal, very unprofessional timing, but it addressed the charge that Mottaki was unaware of his sacking before the public announcement, which would be an insulting action. Rahimi said it would be “unethical” to fire someone publicly prior to his notification.
Rahimi also said that Mottaki and Ahmadi-nejad had discussed a new post for Mottaki that “will be announced at a later date.” He also said the president’s office is scheduling a ceremony at which Ahmadi-nejad will honor Mottaki for his service. Nothing further has been heard about either a new appointment or a ceremony.
A few days later, Ahmadi-nejad was visiting Turkey and told a news conference that Mottaki was fully aware of his dismissal well in advance of the announcement.
Mottaki fumed at that. The next day he issued an angry statement saying he had never been told he would be fired before he left for Senegal. He said he had no discussion with Ahmadi-nejad about anyone replacing him when they met to discuss the trip to Senegal.
“What is even more ridiculous is that I was not informed of the date for the farewell ceremony and the introduction of my successor,” he wrote.
Clearly seething, Mottaki said, “Sacking a minister on a mission is un-Islamic, undiplomatic, offensive and outside the accepted practices of politics.”
He urged “authorities to stop their bad-tempered behavior.”
In a statement issued Sunday, two weeks after the firing, 260 Majlis deputies signed their names in praise of Mottaki. That left only 30 deputies silent. The 260 signatures was an unusual number and may have been the largest ever gathered for a statement by deputies.
The administration still has not given an explanation of the reason for the sudden sacking. Last August, Ahmadi-nejad tried to copy an American practice and named special presidential envoys to several parts of the world. Mottaki objected publicly and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi intervened to say that foreign policy must be carried out though the foreign Ministry, not special envoys. That was the sole public feud between the two men. But Mottaki was never part of Ahmadi-nejad’s entourage and, in fact, supported Ali Larijani in the 2005 elections.
