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In the first major blow to the Rouhani Government since it assumed power last August, Parliament dismissed Science Minister Reza Faraji Dana (pictured) on Wednesday.

Faraji Dana’s responses to questions from lawmakers were not enough to win the vote of no confidence, with MPs voting 145-110 with 15 abstentions for his removal.

President Rouhani was in northwestern Iran on a provincial tour, but many of his Cabinet ministers and senior staff attended the hearing.

Rouhani quickly tried to responded by naming Mohammad Ali Najafi, who was blocked by the Majlis last summer from becoming Education Minister, as acting Science Minister. Faraji Dana was named an advisor to the President on science and education.

The steps could not hide the defeat for Rouhani, however. Already curbed in his political and social maneuvers by hardline pressure, the President had tried to push back critics this spring by denouncing their use of “heaven’s whip” to intimidate the public as well as their opponents. With Faraji Dana’s removal, those critics may now seek the dismissal of Culture Minister Ali Jannati, assailed for his proposals to open up access to the Internet and social media and to ease enforcement of laws for proper hijab for women.

Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, leader of principlists in the Majlis and a member of the Supreme Leader’s inner circle, signalled the continuing pressure, “The Parliament is cooperating with the Rouhani administration, but MPs are sensitive to issues associated with the sedition” — the term used for mass protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

Haddad-Adel’s statement echoed the criticism of Faraji Dana in the hearing as an “extremist…associated with the (2009) sedition.”

Some reformists tried to turn the dismissal into a wake-up call to mobilize for the next Parliamentary elections in 2016. Mohammad Aref, a member of the Expediency Council, said that “if Iran’s youth and students want to correct current the situation, they should put their efforts towards ensuring victory”.

Faraji Dana’s unforgivable offense in the eyes of his opponents was his reinstatement of professors who were dismissed and students who were expelled after the 2009 Presidential election, as well as his promotion of other academics considered suspect for “a role in upheavals”. A statement continued:

Unfortunately, his conduct in the ministry diagonally opposed the official line of policy approved by the System; his conduct led universities to the edge of the extremism, which contradicted with policies propagated by the government which advocated moderation. We believe that the current ministerial conduct would only destabilize the corridors for science and technology and create chaos in society.

(Hat tip to Hanif Zarrabi-Kashani of Brookings for translations)


Photo: Journalist Saba Azarpeyk Free After 3 Months in Prison

Saba Azarpeyk, a journalist for several reformist publications, smiles on her release on Wednesday from prison after almost three months (see Wednesday’s Daily):

AZARPEYK

Foreign Ministry Rejects Cooperation with Britain and US Against Islamic State in Iraq

Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has restated Iran’s rejection</strong> of cooperation with the US and Britain in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq.

“If they are determined in campaign against terrorism in Iraq, they should prove it in practice,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

However, the Minister moved away from recent regime claims that the US had supported and even fostered the Islamic State, which has taken much of Iraq — including major cities like Mosul — in recent months.

Amir-Abdollahian acknowledged, “We know that the US, Saudi Arabia and many other countries in the region are concerned about the Islamic State’s acts and are about to make serious decisions to fight against (them).”

Foreign Minister Marzieh Afkham also gave a tentative indication that Iran might be amenable to discussions with others apart from the US and Britain: “The Islamic Republic has begun talks regarding the threat of terrorism and its increasing engagement with various countries including European countries.”

She added that the ministry hopes that the talks will focus on the role and place of Iraq in these discussion and pave the way for “resolving the issue of terrorism and ISIS activities.”

The Rouhani Government signalled its readiness to work with the US in June, after the Islamic State seized Mosul and Tikrit and moved on Baghdad; however, it was overruled by other regime figures, including the Supreme Leader.

Head of Basij Militia: “European Race on Verge of Extinction”

The head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has explained that the European race is on the verge of extinction with Western corruption and support of Israel.

Naqdi told Basij commander that “the West’s cultural invasion” was an attempt to separate “not just our, but also their own nations from ethics and morality — if the European and US nations lived an ethics-based life, they wouldn’t accept the Zionists’ cruelties so easily”.

The commander predicted, “The result of institutionalization of corruption in the West is that their race is becoming extinct in such a way that history books should write 100 years later that a race named the European race existed on the Earth some time ago.”