“No record” of Iran minister’s Oxford degree
Published: Monday, August 11, 2008
13:10GMT—9:10AM/EST
IRAN – POLITICS – CREDENTIALS
Washington, 11 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s newly-appointed interior minister, Ali Kordan, never received a degree from Oxford University, the university told IranVNC today.
“The University of Oxford has no record of Mr Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the University,” the university’s press office told IranVNC in an email.
Commenting on three professors – Edmund Rolls, Peter Bryant and Alan Cowey – who Kordan says approved his qualifications for an honorary degree, the university wrote: “…all at some stage held posts at the University of Oxford. However, none of them work in the field of Law, and none of them would sign degree certificates.”
But Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday evening expressed his support for Kordan.
Speaking in a ceremony bidding farewell to outgoing Interior Minister Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi, and welcoming Kordan, Ahmadinejad said that “scraps of paper” are not needed for public service.
According to the informational website of Iran’s Interior Ministry, Ahmadinejad referred to doubts that had previously been raised about the credentials of Hashemi, and said the “creation of doubt” about Kordan’s credentials was “insulting”.
According to the semi-official Fars News Agency, Ahmadinejad backed Hashemi and Kordan, saying “for public service, there’s no need for scraps of paper”.
“Of course, there is always a lot of talk behind the backs of people who work, and I remember once, some people told me that Mr. Hashemi’s Master’s degree was fake. For me, it was interesting that when I got to know him, the only thing that was not important for me was precisely that scrap of paper,” Fars quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
The president’s statements came just hours after the Interior Ministry issued a statement confirming Kordan’s honorary doctorate and threatening to subject “doubting” media to a Judiciary review.
At the same time, the news and analysis website, Alef, which is affiliated with Ahmad Tavakkoli, the head of the Majlis research center, undertook a study of Kordan’s “alleged document”.
Alef noted that “contrary to the Interior Ministry’s statement, an individual by the name of Pringle, did not sign the diploma”, and highlighted the presence of spelling and grammar mistakes in Kordan’s document.
Asr-e Iran news website also addressed the issue, publishing the names of the recipients of Honorary Doctorate degrees in the year 2000 – the year Kordan says he received the degree.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a public meeting in a news conference, Tavakkoli, who is also a Tehran representative, said: “It is possible that the document presented may not be credible,” the website, Jahan News, reported today.
Asr-e Iran reports that Tavakkoli, pointing out that that research regarding “whether the academic document of the interior minister is authentic or not” will continue, said: “We searched Oxford’s website and found that the individual who signed the doctorate does not exist at Oxford at all.”
“Kordan does not have a Bachelor’s degree and as he says, he directly received his Master’s from the Azad University,” Tavakkoli continued.
While noting that “it is possible that universities with similar names exist”, Tavakkoli added that it would be illegal for Kordan to receive the salary equivalent to that to a doctoral degree.
Sources: Interior Ministry of Iran website, Asr-e Iran, Jahan News, Aftab News, Alef News
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)