Parliament Dismisses Rouhani's Minister of Economy

The impeachment session of Masoud Karbasian, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, was held on Sunday, September 4, in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and at the end of the session, representatives voted for the second time in less than a month to dismiss the minister of Rouhani's government. According to Mehr News Agency, in the impeachment session on Sunday, Karbasian was dismissed with 137 votes in favor and 121 votes against. The impeachment proposal included 17 items, including 'inability to manage the country's economic affairs,' 'lack of necessary measures to organize the country's economy,' 'failure to pay attention to the resistant economy,' 'inability to popularize the economy,' and 'inability to clarify and purify the country's economy.' This session was held in the absence of Hassan Rouhani, and his first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri, along with several cabinet officials, attended the impeachment session. Among the representatives in favor of the impeachment were Hossein Ali Haji Deligani, representative of Shahin Shahr, Hadi Bahadori, representative of Urmia, Hedayatollah Khademi, representative of Izeh, and Elias Hazrati, representative of Tehran, who pointed to issues such as stagflation, lack of coordination within the government's economic team, the Ministry of Economy's inability to outline a strategy for advancing the country's economy, and corruption in various sectors of the Ministry of Economy. However, Masoud Karbasian defended his performance in the Ministry of Economy by referring to issues of corruption and certain events within the country, as well as U.S. sanctions against Iran, stating that the economic problems 'are not under the control of the government' and that some have arisen due to the 'breach of trust by the oppressive system.' The U.S. government, following its withdrawal from the JCPOA, implemented the first phase of the return of previous sanctions starting from August 6, and the second phase is set to be implemented from November 4. Over the past year, severe disarray in Iran's currency market, as well as rising inflation rates and increasing prices, have led to multiple protests in various cities across Iran, with the latest protests occurring in early August in Tehran and several other cities. Reza Faraji Dana, the former Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, was the only minister who was impeached and dismissed during Rouhani's first government. In Rouhani's second government, the parliament voted about three weeks ago in a controversial session to dismiss Ali Rabiei from the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare. In that session, supporters and opponents of the impeachment unusually accused each other of financial and administrative corruption, citing specific and clear cases. Although the Speaker of the Parliament stated that these accusations would be addressed within two weeks, no news has been published on this matter since then.