SCIENCE MINISTER’S RESIGNATION ANOTHER BLOW TO KHATAMI
TEHRAN 28 July (IPS) The lamed Iranian President Mohammad Khatami received another blow Monday after it was confirmed that his Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mostafa Mo’in has submitted his resignation.
"When the minister of science is witnessing that for various illogical reasons obstacles are being thrown on the way of nation's scientific progress, he would be left with no alternative than resignation", explained Mrs. Mahdokht Boroujerdi, the Director General Ministry’s Public Relations Department.
This is the second time that the 52 years-old Mo’in resigns and though it
is not clear yet if Mr. Khatami would accept it or not, but observers agree that
it could produce major political impact, starting by encouraging other ministers
who are not happy with the President’s soft attitude towards the ruling
conservatives.
"Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Dr. Mostafa Mo’in handed over his resignation to President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday but the President gave no response to the resignation request", Mrs. Boroujerdi pointed out, according to a dispatch by the official news agency IRNA.
"Scientific progress of the country is on top of the agenda of the Science Ministry", she added, confirming indirectly that Moin's resignation was mainly due to the rejection by the leader-controlled Council of the Guardians of a bill aimed at restructuring his ministry.
But sources close to the Minister said he was mainly annoyed at the way the authorities treated the students in their last month’s protest movement, including the arrest of hundreds of students in the one hand and the numerous organs that interfere in the affairs of universities, particularly the personal Representative of the leader in the universities, on the other.
Mr. Mo’in resigned for the first time four years ago after Ayatollah Ali Khamehe’i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, in agreement with President Khatami, ordered the revolutionary Guard, the basij militias and security forces to put down "at any cost" a protest movement staged by students, an event that has since become a landmark of popular demonstrations against the regime.
"By tendering his resignation, Mr. Mo’in not only shows the courage of protesting the present political situation of the country, but he also expresses what other ministers resents in private, meaning that under present conditions, it is difficult for them to carry on their duties", one observer said, asking for anonymity.
"Mr. Mo’in in fact is protesting to the Council of the Guardians who, by systematically rejecting government’s bills for reforms, including the last ones aimed at enhancing the powers of the President and curtailing those of the Guardians, are abusing of their illegal and unconstitutional powers", another analyst said.
Analysts said that after Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Noori, the former Interior Minister and Ata’ollah Mohajerani, the former Islamic Guidance and Culture Minister, both resigned under pressures from the conservatives, Mr. Mo’in is probably the most "political" minister of Mr. Khatami who tenders his resignation.
"No doubt that few conservatives would deplore Mr. Mo’in’s decision, but there is also no doubt that his resignation would send a very strong signal to the students, scholars, intellectuals, journalists, political activists and even the people who recently have increased their voices calling for replacing the present theocracy for democracy", a university professor noted. ENDS SCIENCE MINISTER RESIGNS 28703