The Fars News Agency reported on March 29 that the Speaker of Parliament, Ali Larijani, issued several letters to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the last day of the Iranian year, which ended on March 21, challenging the legality of five pieces of government legislation.
According to Fars, the letters describe the legal shortcomings of five government bills involving companies that produce intellectual property, the supervision of corporations, the establishment of an Agriculture and Natural Resources Engineering organization, the budget for free-trade and industrial zones and the licensing of automobile sales.
Parliament and the Ahmadinejad administration have been continuously at odds in the past year over similar disagreements. Ahmadinejad has accused Parliament of trying to take control of the government, while Ali Larijani claims he is just adhering to Parliament’s constitutional responsibilities.
The disputes reached an apex when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad turned the impeachment session of his labour minister into an expose of the Larijani family. He showed a recorded private conversation between Fazel Larijani, the brother of parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, and the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, and accused him of abusing his family’s powerful positions to gain economic benefit.
Ali Larijani dismissed the president’s claim and “mafioso” tactics and asked his delegation to leave the parliamentary session.
