TEHRAN, Iran — Dozens of Iranian lawmakers have signed a petition seeking to make Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the first president to be summoned for questioning since the Islamic Revolution 32 years ago.
The numbers fall short of the constitutional requirement that at least one-fourth of the 290 parliament members must sign the petition before the president can be questioned.
Ahmadinejad faces deep dissent within his own country and even within his own conservative political camp. However, his position appears secure as long as he continues to have the support of the country’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces.
Ali Motahari, a hard-line lawmaker behind the petition, says Iran’s tensions with the outside world and its domestic woes will not stop lawmakers from taking the president to account.
“I don’t believe that questioning [the president] will cause tension. Our people should know that putting questions to the president is a right of lawmakers,” a reformist news website, aftabnews. ir news, quoted Motahari as saying Wednesday.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 11/25/2010