Iran MPs set to vote on Ahmadinejad cabinet

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian MPs were set to vote on Thursday on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new cabinet after five days of heated debate which saw several nominees strongly opposed by conservative lawmakers.

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has since Sunday been debating the 21-member cabinet line-up proposed by the embattled president.

The list includes several newcomers including three women candidates, the first in the Islamic republic's history.

The vote of confidence was initially scheduled for Wednesday but was now to be held on Thursday, once lawmakers wind up the debate.

Ahmadinejad, whose disputed June 12 re-election set off the worst crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year history, saw several of his proposed ministers being given short shrift by conservatives in the past four days.

His nominees to be confirmed have each in turn to secure the support of more than 50 percent of sitting MPs during the confidence vote.

The hardliner has been particularly criticized by some powerful MPs from his own conservative support base over two of the three women cabinet designates as well as his proposed transport and interior ministers.

Masoud Mirkazemi, the proposed oil minister, came under severe attack from powerful conservative MP Hamid Reza Katouzian when debate resumed on Thursday.

Katouzian lashed out at Mirkazemi, the current commerce minister, over his lack of experience in the vital oil sector which accounts for 80 percent of foreign earnings of Iran, OPEC's second largest exporter.

"This ministry requires a wide range of decision making in areas of gas, petrochemicals, exploration... and if wrong decisions are taken, it will be hard to rectify them," Katouzian said in the chamber.

"This is a specialized work. Can we ask someone with an engineering degree to run the ministry of health or lead a medical team during a surgery?"

Katouzian said Mirkazemi was not fitted to "defend Iran's rights in an OPEC conference."

Mirkazemi came close to being impeached twice during the first four-year term of Amadinejad's government over a stiff hike in prices of basic commodities.

Mirkazemi ignored the criticism on Thursday and boldly outlined his plans.

"We have to remember that our oil fields are depleting and we must find sophisticated ways to utilize them," he said.

"We also need 140 billion dollars to boost upstream projects and another 50 billion dollars for downstream projects. We must also boost our oil production to 5.1 million barrels a day from 4.3 over the next five years."

In 2005, when Ahmadinejad was presenting his first-ever cabinet, parliament twice rejected his nominees for the oil ministry, one withdrew before a vote was taken, and lawmakers finally confirmed his fourth choice.

On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad's choice for interior minister, Motafa Mohammad Najjar, a military commander, was also severely criticized.

"A military man as interior minister signals to the outside world that the country's political atmosphere is being militarized," said reformist MP Jamshid Ansari.

Najjar is a top commander in the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. One of the most powerful institutions in Iran, it was set up in the wake of the 1979 revolution to defend the Islamic republic from internal and external threats.

The Basij, a volunteer militia force that is a unit of the Guards, was extensively used to crack down on people protesting what they said was the fraudulent re-election of Ahmadinejad on June 12.

Those protests sparked the worst crisis in the Islamic republic, dividing its powerful clerical groups and shaking the very pillars of the regime.

Two women cabinet nominees -- education and welfare -- are expected to be rejected as they lack ministerial experience and face opposition from hardline clerics who believe women are incapable of heading managerial positions.

But the woman set to head the health ministry, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, is expected to be confirmed after she presented an elaborate four-year plan on Tuesday.

If that occurs, Dastjerdi would be the first woman to hold a cabinet post in the Islamic republic's 30-year history.