Thursday, January 26, 2006

Government Warns Majlis

Meysam Tavab, Rooz Online: Special Report
Ahmadinejad's ultra-hardline government has asked Majlis (Iran Parliament) to stay away from making foreign policy pronouncements. READ MORE

Rooz reporter reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chair of Majlis’s National Security and Foreign Policy committee to stay away from foreign policy issues and let the government control the critical decisions and the task of informing the public of such sensitive issues. Apparently the warning was delivered to Boroujerdi after his comments about Iran’s rejection of the Russian enrichment proposal before the government had publicly taken a position on it.

Boroujerdi's comments were made at the time when Ali Larijani, the chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council was in Russia whose interview with the British Financial Times newspaper had expressed Iran's readiness for a nuclear reconciliation.

In the same interview, Boroujerdi also announced that the Islamic Republic had canceled the Paris agreement thus conveying the message that Iran was not going to talk with the Europeans, whereas the official messages since then have contradicted that assumption. Based on the Paris agreement, Iran voluntarily suspended all its nuclear activities over 2 years ago.

Ahmadinejad's government seems to be deeply unhappy with the Majlis which recently announced high-level goals and plans for the country. A while ago Ahmadinejad's official website charted Boroujerdi of announcing policies that had not yet been approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.