Jannati Receives His Second Yellow Card from Parliament

On Tuesday, June 9, Iranian parliament representatives were not satisfied with the explanations provided by the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Ali Jannati, regarding "limitations on freedom of expression," including restrictions on reporting the Karsent oil contract and criticism of the Geneva nuclear negotiations, and issued him a "yellow card" for the second time. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, announced at the end of the session that the impeachment session for the Minister of Education would be held next Wednesday. According to the state news agency IRNA, the parliament members, with 84 votes in favor, 116 against, and 4 abstentions out of 212 present representatives, were not convinced by Jannati's responses. According to the report, Masoud Mir-Kazemi, Hossein Tala, Mehrdad Bazrpash, Mohammad Soleimani, Morteza Aghatehrani, and Bijan Nobaveh, representatives from Tehran, and Ali Taheri, a representative from Gorgan, had questioned the Minister of Culture about the "limitations" on media regarding the Karsent case and criticism of the Geneva negotiations. In response to this question, Ali Jannati described the Karsent case in The Hague as "very sensitive" and stated that Iran has been fined $13.85 billion in this case. He added, "I personally believe that there have been many abuses and there may have been bribes, but... if we make the slightest negligence, it will result in a significant amount - at least $14 billion - in damages for the Islamic Republic of Iran." According to Jannati, the Supreme National Security Council has officially declared for the past two years that "officials and even the press do not have the right to comment on this matter." The Minister emphasized, "Apart from this resolution from the Supreme National Security Council, there has been no other case that the Ministry has communicated to the newspapers." The Karsent contract was signed in 2002 when Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was the Minister of Oil, and it was supposed to export unprocessed gas from the Salman field to the United Arab Emirates for 25 years, but this contract was canceled by Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's deputy. Reuters reported on August 9, 2014, citing the Emirati company Danagas, which is a subsidiary of Karsent, that an international court ruled in favor of the company regarding the dispute between Iran and Karsent. Abbas Yazdanpanah Yazdi, an Iranian-British businessman who disappeared in Dubai on June 24, 2013, is also involved in these two cases. Meanwhile, some parliament members and conservative media have referred to Abbas Yazdanpanah Yazdi as a "friend and partner" of Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and have accused Mehdi Hashemi of being involved in the Karsent case. In this context, the Tasnim news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, also published videos of Yazdanpanah's confessions regarding his connection with Mehdi Hashemi. However, according to Atena Yazdi, Yazdanpanah's wife, these videos relate to "forced confessions" made during his detention in 1993. Masoud Mir-Kazemi, a Tehran representative and Minister of Oil in Ahmadinejad's government, also protested against the "dual approach" of the Ministry regarding the Supreme National Security Council's resolutions and stated that "what you are doing indicates support for those who have disrespected government critics, scholars, parliament representatives, and the sanctities of the system in their cases." According to ISNA news agency, he also expressed concerns over issues such as the "exclusion of critical journalists from government officials' interview sessions," the "censure" of the conservative newspaper Vatan-e-Emruz due to its articles against the Saudi king, and pressure on state television to refrain from airing critical programs against the government. In response to these remarks, the Minister of Culture described the parliament members' questions as "containing a type of contradiction" and added: "On one hand, they say there is no freedom and conservative newspapers cannot write their articles, and on the other hand, they say how free you have left the press that they insult parliament members." He added: "Conservative and anti-government newspapers write whatever they want; regarding Geneva and nuclear negotiations, no resolution has been communicated from the Supreme National Security Council, and we have not created any restrictions." The yellow card issued to the Minister of Culture on Tuesday is the twelfth yellow card from the Iranian parliament to ministers in Hassan Rouhani's government. Previously, in addition to the Minister of Culture, who had received a yellow card once, the ministers of Interior, Labor and Social Welfare, Education, Industry and Mines, Communications and Information Technology, and Economy have also received yellow cards. Meanwhile, parliament members have issued two yellow cards to the ministers of Education, Industry and Mines, and Economy. The impeachment session for the Minister of Education will be held next week. Mohammad Reza Bahonar, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and the head of the Tuesday session, announced at the end of the session that the impeachment proposal for Minister Ali Asghar Fani had been received with 64 signatures and that the impeachment session would be held next Wednesday. According to ISNA news agency, "neglecting the condition of schools in the country," "the minister's inefficiency in attracting government attention to secure teachers' livelihoods," and "lack of a coherent and operational plan for enriching and enhancing the productivity of educational and developmental programs" have been cited as reasons for the impeachment of the Minister of Education.