A day after an advisor to President Ahmadinejad and the director of Iran’s Department of Environment denied reports of the dissolution of the High Council for the Environment, the department’s vice president resigned from his post in protest, and announced , “I am no longer willing to work with the Department of Environment under any circumstances.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the judiciary confirmed the reports that the husband of Ahmadinejad’s advisor was arrested for engaging in illegal financial activities.

Earlier this week, news broke out that the government intends to dissolve the High Council for the Environment along with 28 other government organizations. Nevertheless, an hour before the administration’s spokesperson Elham, confirmed the report, the organization’s director and Ahmadinejad’s advisor, Fatemeh Vaez-Javadi, claimed that the report was cooked up by “unemployed journalists.” Few minutes later, the administration’s spokesperson confirmed the news.

Several officials in the government protested the administration’s decision as soon as it was confirmed. One such figure was the head of Tehran province’s Department of Environment. In his view, “With the dissolution of the High Council, the department still needs to rely on a council to author new regulations and laws. Otherwise, the director of the Department of Environment will be the sole person responsible for putting together environmental laws.”

Despite the opposition, the administration’s spokesperson insisted that the High Council was dissolved in order to “combine parallel management structures, downsize and streamline bureaucracy, increase efficiency, better use the ideas and innovations of experts, and increase the quality of decisions.”

Last week, in protest to the Ahmadinejad Administration’s decision, the Department of Environment’s vice president announced that he will resign from his post. Dr. Khallagh Mirnia, while denying reports from websites close to the administration that he was quitting his post in order to run for public office, said, “After finishing my term at the Department I will return to the university. I am no longer willing to work with the Department of Environment under any circumstances.”

Mirnia added, “After spending two years with the Department, with the dissolution of the High Council for the Environment and other changes, I am not willing to stay at the Department.” Mirnia lamented that the government has ignored “the consequences of its decision and their detrimental effects on the environment.”

In a related report, a spokesperson for the judiciary confirmed that Fatemeh Vaez-Javadi’s husband, Majid Yazdani, was “arrested for one night and released on bail.” Several news agencies had reported Yazdani’s arrest last week, but the public relations office at the Department of Environment denied the reports. Majid Yazdani himself also denied the report in an interview with Shahr news agency.

However, a spokesperson for the judiciary confirmed Yazdani’s arrest and said that he was arrested because of his engagement in illegal financial activities.