After the president accepted the resignations of the Minister of Road and Transportation and, the Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade, the fourth and the fifth seats in the cabinet will be empty.
\nThe 12th government \u2013 which does not seem to have a leader for a while \u2013 has previously lost the Ministers of Economy and Labor who could not get the vote of confidence from the parliament.
\nFollowing the currency crisis, Minister of Economy Karbasian was impeached by the lawmakers in August this year. And Rahmatullah Akrami was appointed as caretaker of this Ministry.
\nBefore that, the Minister of Labor, Cooperative and Social Welfare too was impeached by the Parliament, and Anoushiravan Mohseni Bandpay replaced Ali Rabiee as caretaker of this Ministry.
\nMohammad Bagher Nobakht, the Spokesperson of the government \u2013 who as deputy to the president, was at the same time the head of the Budget and Planning Organization \u2013 resigned from his position as spokesperson to retain his position as the head of the Budget and Planning Organization.
\nAs a result, at the time of crisis in the country\u2019s economy, none of the positions related to this field has a Minister. Also, the government has been deprived of its most basic tool to communicate with people.<\/p>\n
President, incapable of running the government<\/strong><\/span> Interference of powers, conflict of policies<\/span><\/strong> The objection of presidents against presidential powers<\/strong><\/span>
\nHassan Rouhani himself has been repeatedly accused by critics of being lazy, not hard-working, and incapable of handling the government\u2019s current affairs. But that is not all.
\nAccording to the constitution of Iran, particularly after its revisions in 1989, even though the president is the second person in the country\u2019s structure of power and the head of the executive branch, his powers are even more limited than his cabinet members.
\nAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, during his presidency, entrusted the four Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior Affairs, Intelligence and Defense to the Supreme Leader \u2013 as he said, \u201cfor more cooperation with other non-elective institutions\u201d \u2013 so that \u201chis economic government\u201d could move forward more swiftly.
\nThis illegal tradition continued after Hashemi Rafsanjani\u2019s presidency came to an end but was not limited to these four ministries.
\nThe Supreme Leader gradually imposed his views in appointing the Ministers of Cultural and Social Affairs. This went to the extent that Hassan Rouhani, at the time of introducing the Ministers of Higher Education and Culture and Islamic Guidance, openly said that from among the candidates he had in mind, he had introduced the ones approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Parliament for a vote of confidence.
\nIn a note in Shargh Daily<\/em> in 2018, Saeed Hajarian called the Supreme Leader, based on the domain of his powers, the \u201cpresident\u201d of the country as well.
\nAccording to Hajarian, \u201csince the current head of the government is even deprived of policy-making in the fields of foreign, defense, and domestic affairs [\u2026] the head of the government cannot be even considered equal to a minister in other political establishments, particularly given the fact that he is not even in charge of appointing half of his cabinet. The president is the head of the majority of people; naturally, in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is the leader who is the master of the people. President means the head of the republic, and this completely applies to the leader. As a result, the person whom we call the president today is eventually someone who sits at the head of the government\u2019s table and chairs the government\u2019s meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nApart from documents and legal books, the government in the Islamic Republic is at most in charge of selling oil, converting a little more than 60% of its revenue to rials, and distributing it among civil and service departments.
\nHowever, given this extent of powers, the duties of the government cabinet \u2013 or at least what is expected from it \u2013 is far more extensive.
\nThe government cabinet and its head are responsible for defending the public interests and staying committed to its election promises. At the same time, it should enact the large-scale policies whose enforcer [the Supreme Leader] is not willing to accept any responsibility for them.
\nAbbas Akhundi, the Minister of Road and Urban Development, has pointed out this issue explicitly in his resignation, \u201cgiven the policy of maximum interference of the government in the market and methods of organizing economic affairs under the current conditions of the government, I am not capable of making the necessary coordination.\u201d
\nHe also considered his resignation due to three principles \u2013 according to sanctions- and has said that these three principles are, \u201ccommitment to law, respecting property rights, and a competitive market economy.\u201d
\nThe resignation shows that the 12th government, which had a liberal tendency in the economy, had to give in to violations to the free market, due to the pressures of institutions outside the government, forcing one of its liberal ministers to resign.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the most important common points among Iranian presidents is perhaps dissatisfaction with their limited powers and responsibilities.
\nApproximately 40 years after developing the laws to determine the limits and powers of the president, discussions, and controversies still continue.
\nFrom the reformist president Mohammad Khatami to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was backed by the fundamentalists, they have called for clarification and an increase in the president\u2019s powers.
\nPreviously, Rouhani too had announced his resolve to enact the powers of the president one year after beginning his \u2018moderate\u2019 government. Grievances of the presidents in the past 17 years\u2013 regardless of their political approach \u2013 indicate that the president\u2019s powers and his limits, particularly in enforcing the constitution, have created problems.
\nIn his provincial trip to Ardebil, Hassan Rouhani said, \u201cpeople voted so because the president becomes the first enforcer of the constitution. The president is in charge of enforcing the constitution in the country.\u201d
\nThe dispute is over Article 113 of the constitution. According to Article 113 of the constitution, \u2018After the leadership, the President of the Republic is the highest official of the country. He is responsible for executing the constitution.\u2019
\nBased on this principle, Khatami held that \u2018the president cannot stop the violation or lack of implementation of the constitution, or at least there are ambiguities in this regard.\u2019 He prepared a bill for increasing the powers of the president based on the duties proposed in this article of the constitution and sent it to the parliament.
\n10 years later in 2010, Ahmadinejad said, \u2018in my opinion, the mechanisms for the separation of powers haven\u2019t been created wisely; that is because these mechanisms haven\u2019t changed for the past 100 years, whereas during these years, everything has become more complicated.\u2019
\nNow after 8 years, the 12th government \u2013is trapped in powers it doesn\u2019t have any duties it does have \u2013 has been so grounded that before its second year of formation, it is now witnessing four empty seats in the cabinet.<\/p>\n