Iran parliament votes against sacking of finance minister

Nov 1, 2011, 14:00 GMT

Eds: Recasts with outcome, adds Ahmadinejad quotes =

Tehran (dpa) - Iran's parliament on Tuesday voted against the dismissal of Finance Minister Shamseddin Hosseini over his alleged involvement in a banking scandal.

Hosseini had been summoned to Parliament to for the proceedings during which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended the minister.

Only 93 of the 244 deputies voted in favour of his dismissal.

Hossein defended his decision not to step down over the 2005 embezzlement of more than 2.5 billion dollars from the Melli Bank.

'I did not resign over the case because I see it as my obligation to clarify the case,' he told Parliament.

Ahmadinejad told Parliament that Hosseini was one of his best and promising ministers and called on the deputies not to vote for his dismissal.

'The government needs Hosseini,' Ahmadinejad told the parliament.

The assembly's conservatives and the influential clergy, which previously firmly supported the president against the reformist opposition, have increased pressure on Ahmadinejad in recent months.

They claim he has been moving closer to a 'deviant current,' a group of advisers allegedly trying to undermine Iran's Islamic system.

The group is reportedly headed by Ahmadinejad's top adviser, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, who is also the father-in-law of the president's son.

Conservative circles say that Rahim-Mashaei and other presidential advisers are planning to use the funds embezzled from Melli Bank to finance their campaign in parliamentary elections in March.

Ahmadinejad has categorically denied the charges, accusing his critics in turn of using the scandal to settle their own political grievances against him.

The March elections are expected to pit the conservative faction, headed by Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, against the reformist wing led by former president Mohammad Khatami and the new pro-Ahmadinejad current, which the president himself has called the 'third wave.'