Majlis deputies call on president to “confront” vice president
Washington, 12 August (IranVNC)—Iranian Vice President for Cultural Heritage and Tourism Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei will attend a special Majlis [parliament] session tomorrow to reply to “questions, ambiguities and criticism” on recent comments he made, the semi-official ISNA news agency reports.
By: IranVNC
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
14:25GMT—10:25AM/EST
IRAN – MAJLIS – MASHAEI
Washington, 13 August (IranVNC)—Two hundred deputies from Iran’s Majlis [parliament] called on the President to condemn controversial comments made by one of his deputies in regards to American and Israeli people, calling the remarks “a political mistake”.
Iran’s Vice President for Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, on Sunday reiterated comments he made last month, saying: “We [Iran] are friends with all people of the world, even the people of America and Israel.”
The Majlis deputies issued a strongly worded statement today, during Mashaei’s appearance before the assembly to address to “questions and criticism” the lawmakers had. Following the session, the deputies asked Ahmadinejad “to condemn this stance, and confront him [Mashaei] seriously.”
Mashaei’s stance was described as “an unacceptable deviation in one of the most important fields of concern in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy.”
The Islamic Republic has refused to recognize the State of Israel, and Ahmadinejad has called for the country to be “wiped off the map”.
“We [the Majlis] will not in any way allow such a deviation, even in a conservative government,” the statement said.
“If Mr. Mashaei does not have this political knowledge … he does not have the right to assume such abject and disgraceful positions from behind the podium of [Iran’s] vice presidency, and he basically does not have the qualification to take on this responsibility.”
On Monday, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani was quoted by Fars News as saying: “We are not friends with the Israeli people.”
Source: ISNA in Persian, Fars News Agency in Persian
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