Iran parliament to go ahead with impeachment of agriculture minister: Lawmaker
A senior member of the Iranian parliament says plans for impeachment of the government minister for agriculture will go ahead as reports suggest President Hassan Rouhani has rejected the minister’s resignation.
Asadollah Abbassi, who serves as spokesman of the parliament’s presiding board, said on Sunday that the legislature will hold an impeachment session for Minister of Agriculture Jihad Mahmoud Hojjati as planned on Tuesday.
He said President Rouhani had dismissed a resignation request by Hojjati, which would have saved him from the parliament grilling, saying the minister would attend the impeachment session as planned.
The impeachment comes amid various disputes surrounding Hojjati’s way of handling agriculture issues, including rising exports and a controversial price announcement for guaranteed purchase of wheat in the next harvest season.
Hojjati’s critics believe the minister’s export-oriented policies have posed numerous threats to Iran’s food security, especially at a time the country is grappling with a series of economic sanctions imposed by the United States.
They says increased and unregulated exports of agri-food products have led to severe price fluctuations in the market, prompting discontent among both the households and the farmers.
Supporters, however, insist Hojjati, a long-standing minister who has held Cabinet posts for 14 years, has helped with his export programs generate more foreign currency revenues for the government at the time of the sanctions.
Hojjati was harshly criticized in late September when he defended a government-set price of $0.22 for each kilogram of wheat planned to be purchased from farmers next year.
Critics said the price would cause many farmers to sell their crops as animal feed while it would force the government to exponentially increase imports to respond to a rising domestic demand.
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