President Ahmadi-nejad during his appearance in the chamber last month. Khamenehi said they had committed a “sin” by their nasty conduct.
Khamenehi called in the Majlis deputies the day after they refused to approve Ahmadi-nejad’s nominee to be the minister of sports and youth.
Television coverage of the Majlis session showed some of the deputies shouting at the president and heckling him as he tried to speak in support of his nominee.
Larijani took no action but just sat silently in the speaker’s chair while the heckling went on, according to the television coverage of the chamber.
Khamenehi said this insult to the president “deeply disturbed me.” As for the speaker, “I have repeatedly told Mr. Larijani to prevent such behavior.”
Roozonline last week published what it said was the transcript of the entire meeting in which Khamenehi seethed with anger at what he considered inappropriate conduct by the deputies and their leadership.
Khamenehi also singled out one other deputy by name, Ahmad Tavakkoli. Khamenehi complained that when a newly named deputy foreign minister came under heavy criticism, Tavakkoli had continued attacking the man even after he resigned and left public office.
“Why did you write a full page complaint that this [resignation] was not sufficient and that [Foreign Minister Ali Salehi] had to be removed?… You should have stopped pursuing this [after the resignation]. I disapprove of such behavior.”
As to the heckling of Ahmadi-nejad, Khamenehi spoke at length, making his anger with the deputies very obvious.
“The incident at yesterday’s Majlis session has deeply disturbed me,” he began.
“My unhappiness is because of the disrespect that was showed to the president. You insulted the president. You have the right to point out things to him, question him, and even censure him, but you cannot insult anyone, particularly the president. The presidency is an office of respect in the Constitution. Look at the record: presidents have always had opponents in the Majlis, but when were they insulted in such a manner? This insulting behavior was cruel, unjust and a sin.”
Khamenehi continued: “This was a very bad incident. You must remedy this. I have a complaint against Mr. Larijani and the Majlis deputies. When the Majlis deputies yelled, ‘No, no’ in the in the middle of the president’s speech yesterday, Mr. Larijani should have stopped the president’s talk and attacked the minority individuals who yelled out in the middle of the speech. They are disgracing the Majlis in the public image.
“Those who yelled ‘no’ are a small minority. You [Larijani] should have attacked them and read their names to the public. Mr. Larijani should have attacked them. I am not complaining about the way you did or did not vote; that is your duty to undertake.
“I am seriously concerned about this. There are two ways to confront an official: deputies have the legal authority to express their views, logically and without any insults or commotion. If you are critical of the administration or the president, you can say so. Say what is on your mind and engage constructively. The other way is to be antagonistic and confrontational. In this case, it is clear that they were out to hurt [the president].”
Larijani gave a surprising response. He did not apologize. Rather, he said that Khamenehi was wrong about him. “I showed respect for Mr. Ahmadi-nejad. I stood up for him two times and I stopped the chants of ‘no.’ But the television cameras focused on this [the chants] and exaggerated the issue.”
Khamenehi is known to dislike the squabbling that goes with politics. He made that very clear by summoning the deputies for a dressing down.
Politically, it might have also been a convenient balancing act after Khamenehi had disciplined the president for trying to fire the intelligence minister in April. That set off weeks of attacks on the president by Majlis deputies.
It appears that Khamenehi’s dressing down of the deputies may have finally put an end to the three months of harsh attacks on Ahmadi-nejad. Last week, when Ahmadi-nejad spoke in the Majlis in defense of his latest cabinet nominees, the Majlis was quiet and respectful while the president spoke and then approved all the nominees by large margins.
