Mehdi Khazali0620 GMT: Having gone through the show of President Ahmadinejad's "interrogation" in Parliament last Wednesday, all parties are enjoying a New Year's break from the feuding and manoeuvring.
Well, almost all. MP Mostafa Kavakebian tried to stir the political pot on Sunday with the declaration that Ahmadinejad must change his ways or Parliament will move to question his continued competence as President.”
Such a motion needs the signature of one-third of the 290 MPs. Kavakebian said, “I believe the signatures would amount to much more than that...because all the MPs believe that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s answers were aimed at weakening the position of Parliament.”
I doubt the President is trembling this morning, at least over this intervention. Kavakebian, ostensibly a reformist, make a power move for the recent elections by putting himself at the head of a Democracy Front; however, amidst widespread reformist calls to boycott the vote, he adjusted his position to the point where he reportedly said that he was now a principlist.
And, even if Kavakebian retained a political base, the Supreme Leader would have to approve the end of the President's term.
Ahmadinejad, for his part, spent Sunday in a photo opportunity with a group of pro-Palestinian activists, declaring, “The Europe and the US spend tens of billions of their wealth on the Zionists each year to help a criminal regime...continue its occupation....Despite all liberal claims of the Western states, nobody is ever allowed to ask a question or conduct a research on how the Zionist regime was established.”
0615 GMT: Dissident blogger and physician Mehdi Khazali has reportedly been freed on $180,000 bail.
Rah-e-Sabz said the release was ordered on Friday afternoon by a Revolutionary Court.
Khazali, charged with threats to national security because of his criticism of leading figures in his writing, has been on hunger strike for 68 days as of Friday.
Posted via email from lissping
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