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Hemmati was removed from office after 182 out of 273 lawmakers voted against him amid widespread public discontent due to rising costs of living.
Iran’s economy minister has been impeached after the parliament voted to dismiss him from office amid rising inflation and a falling currency.
Abdolnasser Hemmati was removed from office after 182 out of 273 lawmakers voted against him, conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf announced on Sunday, just six months after moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government took office.
In 2015, the Iranian rial was worth 32,000 to the United States dollar, but by the time Pezeshkian took office in July, it had plummeted to about 600,000 to the dollar on the open market.
With regional tensions escalating recently, it dropped even further, trading hands in Tehran’s exchange shops and streets for about 950,000 rials for a dollar. The rial’s devaluation has led to widespread public discontent due to rising costs of living and heightened inflation, at a time when Nowruz New Year’s season is coming up in March.
President Pezeshkian, who was present during the session on Sunday, defended Hemmati, a former central bank governor and presidential candidate. He told lawmakers that “we are in a full-scale [economic] war with the enemy … we must take a war formation”.
“The economic problems of today’s society are not related to one person and we cannot blame it all on one person,” he added.
During the impeachment proceedings, Mohammad Qasim Osmani, a lawmaker supporting Hemmati, argued that rising inflation and exchange rates were not the fault of the current government.
He pointed to the budget deficit left by the administration of hardline president Ebrahim Raisi, which he said contributed to the economic instability.
First major blow to Pezeshkian government
Hardline lawmakers, who have been attacking Pezeshkian’s team since the start of his government, argued that Hemmati was instrumental in Iran’s economic instability and could be “dangerous” for the country if allowed to remain in office.
Hosseinali Hajidaligani, a long-time hardline lawmaker, accused the minister of intentionally devaluing the national currency in order to fill government coffers with a short-term landfall that would cover budget deficits, at the cost of harming the economy and average Iranians.
Hemmati rejected the accusations, and pointed to a 10 percent reduction in inflation. He admitted that inflation still remained high, standing at 35 percent. He told lawmakers that his team was working hard to address the issue, but warned that the process would take time.
Hemmati emphasised that Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018, is now at a critical juncture. Western powers party to the deal only have until October to activate its “snapback” mechanism that can reinstate all United Nations sanctions against Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has stressed that Tehran will not negotiate under the “maximum pressure” policy of hawks in Washington. Pezeshkian told the parliament on Sunday that he wanted to negotiate, but changed his stance after the supreme leader’s remarks.
The economy minister’s pleas of unity were ultimately ignored, with the vote against Hemmati marking the first time hardline MPs have succeeded in knocking out a senior official in the administration of centrist Pezeshkian. However, Hemmati is unlikely to be cut off from government, as impeached ministers have been appointed as special advisors to the president on numerous occasions before.
Looking to challenge and influence the government’s policies, some lawmakers are continuing efforts to oust former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from the position of strategic advisor to the president.
Rampant local mismanagement and corruption, paired with decades of US-led sanctions, have battered Iran’s economy. Amid the expanding fallout of Israel’s war on Gaza and blows dealt to the Iran-led axis of resistance in recent months, public concern over further economic instability has only risen.
For the past three months, Iran has been forced to shut down key services across the country due to a lingering energy crisis.
US and Israeli officials, including Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continue to regularly threaten to bomb Iran and its nuclear and energy facilities over Tehran’s advancing nuclear programme.
