Sacking of Iran’s finance minister deals blow to reformists

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Iran’s hardline-dominated has impeached and sacked economy and finance minister Abdolnaser Hemmati, delivering a significant setback to the reformist government of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The move highlights tensions over how to handle Iran’s crisis, which Pezeshkian says is driven by US sanctions and has become an “all-out war” over the economy.

Lawmakers who voted to remove Hemmati blamed him for worsening economic conditions since he took office last August. They pointed to the 60 per cent depreciation of the national currency, the rial, against the US dollar on the open market during his tenure, along with soaring prices for essential goods including food and medicine.

Of the 273 lawmakers present for Sunday’s session, 182 voted in favour of impeachment, 89 opposed it, one abstained, and one vote was declared invalid.

Defending his minister, Pezeshkian urged parliament not to dismiss a key member of his government, arguing that Iran faced a crisis even more severe than the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

“We are in an all-out war with the enemy [the US]. The war with Iraq was nothing [in comparison],” Pezeshkian told lawmakers. “The enemy wants us to show division. How can we bring about major economic change in just six months?”

The impeachment comes amid a renewed “maximum pressure” campaign by the US administration of Donald Trump, who has reimposed sweeping sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, similar to the measures he introduced in 2018 during his first term.

Pezeshkian admitted that Iran was already struggling to sell its oil due to the latest sanctions, with oil tankers “struggling to offload” shipments.

Elected last July on a platform promising to seek sanctions relief, Pezeshkian had suggested that economic recovery depended on negotiations with Washington.

While Pezeshkian’s senior diplomats had signalled a willingness to discuss the country’s nuclear programme, hopes for renewed talks have dimmed. A recent executive order by Trump expanded US sanctions, citing concerns not only about Iran’s nuclear activities but also its ballistic missile programme and regional policies.

Hardliners in Tehran argue that Washington is now seeking to strip Iran of its strategic capabilities entirely, rather than negotiate a limited nuclear deal like the 2015 agreement that Trump later abandoned.

On Sunday, Pezeshkian acknowledged that he had supported the idea of talks with the US as a “better” option, but reaffirmed his loyalty to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who ruled out negotiations last month shortly after Trump announced his approach.

“When the supreme leader said we don’t negotiate with the US, I [abided by it and] announced we won’t negotiate with the US. That is the end of the story,” Pezeshkian said, in what appeared to be an attempt to appease his conservative critics.

During the debate, some lawmakers accused Hemmati of advocating for negotiations with Washington — which he denied — and of blaming all of Iran’s economic problems on sanctions.

In his defence, Hemmati pointed to deep-rooted domestic structural problems that predate his tenure, including rising poverty and widespread corruption.

He noted that 10mn Iranians had fallen below the poverty line over the past seven years and that an estimated $30bn worth of goods was being smuggled in and out annually due to economic favouritism and political connections. He also highlighted acute problems in the banking and energy sectors.

“About 80 per cent of people are being crushed by what smugglers, sanctions profiteers, and those with special privileges are doing,” Hemmati said. “The budget deficit . . . is tied to international developments.”