TEHRAN, Aug 21: Iran’s President Mahmood Ahmadinejad put his proposed cabinet to parliament on Sunday, lashing out at the West and liberalism and promising a government that will “promote virtue and prohibit vice.”
Signaling his election win had delivered a clean break from the previous reformist administration of Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad pledged to fight off liberalism that he said threatened Islamic values.
“The international community, they go so far as to condemn us. What sort of balance is this? This is injustice and oppression, and our nation will not accept this in international affairs,” Ahmadinejad, who took office on August 3, told parliament.
It was a clear reference to threats against Iran in the wake of Tehran’s decision to resume sensitive nuclear work earlier this month. The Islamic regime has refused to return to a full freeze of nuclear fuel work — the focus of fears the country is seeking atomic weapons.
Ahmadinejad also vowed a more assertive trade policy.
“Currently we are importing from some countries billions of dollars of goods whereas they are not buying our oil and they are also not buying our products,” he said.
“These countries should be thankful to us because we are helping their economies boom, but they are not thankful and are looking at us as if we were indebted to them,” the 49-year-old former commando told the assembly.
The speech to the Majlis, carried live on state television and radio, opened a debate that could last several days on the former Tehran mayor’s proposed 21-member cabinet.
Although right-wingers dominate the assembly, the procedure may not be a mere formality. Of those nominated, only two have previously held ministerial posts while the others are mostly unknowns.
Ahmadinejad said four principles would guide the policy of his new government: “expansion of justice, serving people, elevating the country financially and spiritually, and kindness to people”.
“Liberal thought justifies and recognises all abnormalities and deviations (and) isolates the values defined by religious training such as equality, forgiveness, selflessness, chastity and immaculacy,” he told the 290-seat Majlis.
“Our nation does not and will not tolerate such a thing,” he said, vowing a “culture of spirituality” in the Islamic republic.
“We should expand a culture that promotes virtue and prohibits vice, and also favourable to Islamic traditions such as respect to parents, visiting relatives, generosity to orphans and philanthropy... and we should fortify the education, universities, mosques, seminaries and genuine cultural groups.”
Ahmadinejad has allocated political posts — such as the interior ministry, intelligence and culture — to fellow ultra-conservatives, while technocrats have been appointed to head the oil and foreign ministries.—AFP
