Internal trouble brewing for Iranian president

Tehran (November 25, 2005) – If you think only President Bush has problem with his nomination, think again. Even in the autocratic Iran, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed a third time to get his nominee for the important Oil Ministry approved. The Iranian parliament rejected on Wednesday the president’s third nominee by a clear vote of 139 to 77 with 38 abstentions. As Ahmadinejad made oil the keystone of his presidency, this meant a major setback for him. The minister seat at the Oil Ministry has been unoccupied since August, and Ahmadinejad wanted an ideologue instead of a technocrat in place to carry out his oil policy, which favored domestic over foreign investors. It is unclear at this time, whether he could regain the support of the fundamentalist parliamentary majority.