Amin Raoufinejad

Ahmadinejad’s administration began the new Iranian year (on March 20, 2008) with ‎conflicting reports over the reshuffling of the cabinet. In response to reports by the ‎conservative media in Iran that the Minister of the Economy had resigned, government ‎Spokesman Gholamhossein Elham denied the news and called it an April Fool’s joke.‎

Reports about Davood Danesh- Jaafari’s resignation had been circulating since two days ‎earlier in Iran’s media. According to these reports, Jaafari, along with Minister of the ‎Interior Pour Mohammadi and Minister of Transportation Rahmati are the next two ‎targets of President Ahmadinejad.‎

Such denials by the government spokesperson have a history in Iran where with every ‎refutation by him or any minister, former denials come to the mind of the public, where ‎the rumors turned into reality. But this time, the denial came not from the government ‎spokesman, but the Minister of the Economy himself.

In response to questions from reporters about the rumors of his resignation, Danesh-‎Jaafari simply referred to similar earlier rumors over minister in the ninth administration, ‎and confessed that this was a feature of the current government. “Some rumors do turn ‎out to be correct,” he added, fueling the current chitchat, particularly when he said, “the ‎President and I have a difference of opinion on the country’s monetary and fiscal ‎policies. Perhaps the President seems it fit to select someone more in synch with his ‎view.”‎