Iranian President dismisses three ministers

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed three ministers within the ministerial staff reduction, the official website of the Iranian president reported.

"Oil Minister Seyed Masoud Mir Kazemi, Minister of Welfare and Social Security Sadeq Mahsouli, Minister of Industries and Mines Ali Akbar Mehrabian were dismissed within the plan to reduce the number of ministers from 21 to 17," the website says.

The number of ministries is reduced within the Fifth Five-Year Development Program, launched this year.

According to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Urban Development merged with the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry with the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Petroleum with the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Social Welfare with the Ministry of Labour. Four new ministries were established as a result of merging.

The Iranian Cabinet of Ministers' decision to reduce the number of ministers from 21 to 17 caused a disagreement between the country's parliament and government. Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Ali Larijani called the decision to merge the ministries and ministerial staff reduction as "illegal" and advised the ministers to continue their work as usual.

Larijani said that merging the ministries and establishing new ministries without approval and voting in the parliament of the country contradict the Iranian Constitution.

Iranian Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad-Reza Mir-Tajeddini said that there is no need to hold new voting in the Parliament on changes in the structure of the ministries.


/Trend/