Majlis representative Ali Motahari announced that within the next ten days he was going to submit questions for Ahmadinejad to the Majlis leadership. This principlist MP who is a critic of the administration said that 90 legislators had signed the resolution adding that the MPs “insist that the issue move forward as quickly as possible.”

Motahari has been pushing for such a resolution for a while, but his efforts have gained a faster pace in recent days.

Just last week, he had said that he had put forwarding the resolution on hold because of “various expediencies.”

But he also cautioned that this move should not be interpreted as a step to weaken the administration and the president, adding that it was an “opportunity for the president to present his point of view” which he said would “result in the removal of the misunderstandings and closer ties between the Majlis and the administration.” “None of the signatories of the resolution,” this member of the principlist faction in the Majlis said, “did this out of a sense of revenge, but as an effort to correct issues and remove obstacles of better cooperation.”

Ahmadinejad Has Crossed the Red Lines

Along with Motahari’s resolution, another prominent member of the principlist faction stressed the importance of the questions. Speaking to a reporter from Khabar Online, Hamid-Reza Katoozian who heads the Majlis energy committee asked, “Why should we not be asking questions of the president and turning this issue into a taboo?” He added an even more loaded statement when he said, “The president has crossed many red lines” and then criticized his principlist colleagues by saying, “It is unfortunate that principlists confront the administration only on issues related to the velayate faghih, (i.e., supreme leader).” He also asked why his colleagues did not question the president when he violated the laws of the country.

According to article 88 of the Iranian constitution, the president must respond in person to questions raised by at least a quarter of Majlis representatives within thirty days. In addition, according to article 89, if a third of the membership of the Majlis presents an interpellation to the president, the latter must respond in person within a month. If two thirds of the Majlis rule that the president is not qualified to remain in office, then the decision is presented to the supreme leader for his pronouncement. This impeachment provision in the constitution has been invoked only once in the 32-year life of the Islamic republic when Abolhassan Bani Sadr, the regime’s first president was removed from office in 1981 only about a year after being elected to the office in a landslide.