Motion to summon president not politically motivated: Iranian MP

TEHRAN,Oct.13(MNA) – Iranian MP Mohammad Damadi said that a motion to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the parliament to answer MPs’ questions about the current disarray in Iran’s foreign exchange market is not politically motivated and is a corrective measure. Damadi, who is one of the main initiators of the motion, made the remarks during an interview with the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency published on Friday in reference to the motion signed by 102 MPs, which was submitted to the Majlis Presiding Board on Wednesday. The motion was scheduled to be presented to the Majlis Economic Committee for discussion, and representatives of the president will have to provide the necessary explanations at a meeting of the committee. If answers do not satisfy the MPs, the motion calling for the president to be questioned will again be submitted to the Majlis Presiding Board so that it could be discussed at an open session of the Majlis. The president must then appear before the parliament within a month to answer the questions. The Iranian market is experiencing a letdown due to the fact that Iran’s rial has recently fallen against the U.S. dollar in open-market trade. The government has taken some stopgap measures, such as establishing a foreign exchange center to provide importers of goods with dollars at a reduced rate, to stop the decline in the value of the Iranian currency and managed to bring relative calm to the country’s rattled foreign exchange market. On March 14, Ahmadinejad appeared before the parliament and answered MPs’ questions about a number of the administration’s irregularities. It was the first time in the history of Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 that a president had been summoned to the Majlis.