Lawmakers issue rare rebuke to the president
TEHRAN — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani failed to convince parliament on Tuesday that his plans will pull the country out of an economic nosedive worsened by America’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, further isolating his relatively moderate administration amid nationwide anger.
For only the second time in its history, parliament ordered a sitting president to appear before it to answer questions, the last time coming amid widespread discontent in 2011 over Western sanctions in the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
While Rouhani warned that “painting a bleak picture of people’s lives will lead to further darkness,” lawmakers voted four separate times to say they were unconvinced of his answers about Iran’s recession, its cratering currency, unemployment and smuggling. Those questions now could go to Iran’s judiciary for further review, serving as a warning to the cleric his political stature is slipping.
Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, it has faced American sanctions. Those measures only increased in the 2000s over Western fears Iran’s nuclear program could allow it to build atomic bombs, something Tehran always denied wanting.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal reach between Iran and world powers including the U.S. under President Barack Obama, Tehran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
But in May, longtime deal skeptic President Donald Trump pulled America from the accord. That only fanned the flames burning through the country’s economy from chronic unemployment, high inflation and drastic drops in its currency. Those problems sparked nationwide protests in December and January across Iran.