Azerbaijan, Baku, June 4 / Trend T. Konyayeva /
All the processes and events, happening in Iran, including the current appointment minister of oil, do not develop in accordance with common sense. They are politically motivated, U.S professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Southern California (U.S) Mohammad Sahimi said.
"The easiet way to handle the issue is to apppint someone who is truly an expert on Iran's oil industry," Sahimi told Trend via e-mail. "However, in Iran everything is political and part of the power struggle between different factions within the power hierarchy. Appointing someone to a strategically important ministry such as oil is part of the same trend."
On June 2, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose decision to head the oil ministry was declared by the parliament illegal, appointed Mohammad Aliabadi, the Iranian state television reported.
Aliabadi has not recently held the positions in the oil industry. In particular, he led the National Olympic Committee. He was the director of fisheries management.
Ali Abadi is utterly disqualified to lead the ministry of oil, he said.
Abadi has failed in everything that he has been appointed to. But, the one thing that he has going for him is that is a relative and close friend of Ahmadinejad, and nepotism has been rampant in the Ahmadinejad administration, he added.
The head of the parliamentary commission on energy issues, Hamid Reza Katuzian called Aliabadi's appointing acting minister of oil as "bad choice". He stressed that he does not have necessary experience and expertise in oil and gas sector. He must start from the very beginning, Mehr news agency reported.
He added that these decisions threaten the future of oil and gas industry.
Katuzian said that Ahmadinejad appointed Aliabadi because of the decision of the Iranian Parliament to submit the case over violations of the law by Ahmadinejad to the judicial bodies. "However, the Parliament will not withdraw its decision until the candidate is elected to this position," he added.
On June 1, the Iranian parliament decided that President Ahmadinejad's decision to head the oil ministry contradicts the constitution. The parliament submitted dossiers on a number of violations, committed by Ahmadinejad as the president, to the judicial authorities.
Earlier in May, the Iranian Guard Corps, which directly controls the observance of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, announced about Ahmadinejad's appointing himself minister of oil. But this contradicts the constitution.
In mid-May, Ahmadinejad announced about his decision to temporarily head the oil ministry after the resignation of Oil Minister Seyed Masoud Mir-Kazemi.
Besides Mir-Kazemi, Ahmadinejad dismissed Iranian Minister of Social Welfare and Minister of Industry and Mines. This step was taken to reduce the number of ministers from 21 to 17, which was provided by a five-year development plan of the country from 2010-2015.
T. Jafarov contributed to this article.