Impeachment of Fatemi Amin and Acknowledgment of 'Car Mafia' in Iran; Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Dismissed

The impeachment of the Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade (IMT) of Ebrahim Raisi's government was approved with 162 votes, resulting in the dismissal of Seyyed Reza Fatemi Amin. The state of the car market in Iran was the main focus of discussions during the impeachment, which led to the minister's removal. In the session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on Sunday, which lasted until 2 PM, out of 272 representatives present, 162 voted in favor of the impeachment and dismissal of the IMT minister, while 102 were opposed. There were also 2 abstentions and 6 invalid votes. Six months ago, Fatemi Amin was also impeached by the same assembly, but that impeachment did not pass. During today's impeachment session, supporters criticized the minister's performance and deemed him unqualified to continue in this position. The state of the automotive industry and car market was the central part of the criticisms and one of the main reasons for the impeachment proposal. In his defense, the IMT minister acknowledged the existence of a 'car mafia' and stated that one of his 'deputies was killed.' Throughout the discussions, both supporters and opponents of the impeachment referred to the claim of 'gifting SUVs,' which Fatemi Amin dismissed as 'absolute falsehood,' stating, 'The accusation was neither befitting a popular government nor an revolutionary parliament. It was simply absolute falsehood. In recent days, wherever I went, I felt a heavy gaze upon me, and you felt the same way.' Ahmad Alireza Beigi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, previously announced in an open session that during the previous unsuccessful impeachment of the IMT minister, the IMT distributed '75 SUV vouchers' among representatives to change their votes, which allegedly led to some representatives changing their votes, causing the previous impeachment to fail. Government officials denied this claim. The representative who raised this issue was summoned by the prosecutor's office and visited the judiciary on Saturday. Ebrahim Raisi defended his minister in this session and asked the representatives not to vote for the impeachment to help 'stabilize management' in the ministry. In the afternoon session, Lotfollah Siyahkali, one of the representatives supporting the impeachment, challenged the statistics presented by the minister, calling them 'lies,' and addressed Fatemi Amin, saying, 'Why do you give false statistics to the President to present to the Supreme Leader?' This representative accused the ministry and the minister of 'distorting statistics.' A day before the impeachment of the IMT minister, the 'whistleblower' representative was summoned by the prosecutor's office. The controversy over the gifting of 70 SUVs to representatives intensified, with confirmations and denials regarding the allocation of 75 SUVs to parliament members; a representative from Tabriz stated that Raisi was aware of it.