Iran's reformist Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh faces prosecution by the conservative courts over alleged embezzlement of funds of a semi-official oil company, a pro-reform daily said Sunday, December 2.
Iran News said other top officials of President Mohammad Khatami's administration might also be summoned, adding that the case smacked of "a political crisis trumped up by the opposition conservatives."
Reports of misuse of the assets of Petropars, an offshore-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, or the receipt of kickbacks from contracts with Western oil firms, are not new and have always been denied by reformists. As well as Zangeneh, Iran News named Central Bank Governor Mohsen Nourbakhsh and Industries and Mines Minister Ishaq Jahangiri as liable to be hauled into court soon.
"However, it is still not clear what the charge against these two officials will be," it added. Iran News noted that all three officials were linked to the reformist faction of the Executives of Construction Party, which was founded by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The party split when Rafsanjani opted to back the unsuccessful conservatives in last year's parliamentary elections. One faction stayed with the former president while the other, headed by then culture minister Ataollah Mojerani, backed his successor Khatami.
Mojerani, whose ministry is responsible for the press, was forced to resign his cabinet post under conservative pressure, and Iran News said the conservatives apparently wanted to wipe his party from the political map ahead of the 2004 parliamentary elections, weakening Khatami.
It was reported last month that the Petropars board had agreed with the economy ministry to transfer its British base back to Iran and also repatriate its assets. — (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
