Tehran - Iran's parliament on Thursday backed a cabinet proposed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that includes the Islamic republic's first woman minister and a man wanted in connection with the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Argentina.
The conservative-dominated assembly approved 18 of 21 nominees, propelling Ahmadinejad safely into his second four-year term after the upheaval sparked by the hardliner's disputed re-election in June.
The candidates who failed to secure the required majority of votes were two other women nominees and Ahmadinejad's pick for energy minister.
Highlighting Iran's often maverick status, nearly 80 percent of lawmakers approved Ahmad Vahidi - wanted by Argentina as a suspect in a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing that killed 85 people and wounded 300 - as defence minister.
Continues Below ↓
'This is an important step for women and I hold my head high' After the vote, Vahidi described his selection, by much the greatest margin of any nominee, as a "decisive slap to Israel", Iran's arch-enemy.
Even as parliament speaker Ali Larijani announced his selection, MPs in the chamber shouted "Death to Israel!" - as Vahidi supporters also did during the debate.
During Ahmadinejad's first term the hardline president called the Holocaust a "myth".
Vahidi's appointment "represents one more provocation by Ahmadinejad", said Julio Schlosser, head of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, the target of the attack.
Ahmadinejad and Iran were "rewarding a person accused of committing one of the most horrendous attacks ever experienced in Argentina", he said.
The United States said Vahidi's appointment is a "step backward" for US-led efforts to end Iran's international isolation.
"Rather than taking a step forward" toward engaging the world, it is "taking a step backward by putting into high office" a man suspected of bombing a Jewish centre in Argentina, the State Department's PJ Crowley said.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
