Ali Larijani, Iranian Parliament Speaker, thinks that the leadership at the Iranian Foreign Minister should have been changed with great respect to the former minister. Larijani spoke about it during his speech in the parliament on Sunday, IRNA agency reported.
He said that more respect should have been expressed not to resign Manouchehr Mottaki when he was on a visit to other country.
In a decree issued on December 13, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki from his post and appointed Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Director Ali Akbar Salehi as acting foreign minister.
In a separate letter issued on the same day, President Ahmadinejad expressed gratitude to former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki for his services during his tenure. Mottaki, who was appointed as Iran's foreign minister in August 2005, is the first minister to be replaced during President Ahmadinejad's second term in office which began in 2009.
Salehi, formerly served as Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Salehi was officially inaugurated as Iran's caretaker foreign minister during a ceremony at the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday.
Mottaki did not participate in the ceremony.
Manouchehr Mottaki on Sunday called President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to fire him while on a mission abroad "un-Islamic and insulting."
"Such an approach towards a minister on a mission was un-Islamic, contrary to political and diplomatic norms and quite insulting," he told MEHR news agency.
Mottaki rejected remarks by Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi at Saturday's farewell ceremony - which he did not attend - saying that the president had informed him of his replacement before his visit to Senegal.
"I had a meeting with Ahmadinejad before the visit and the topic was not at all raised, neither the sudden replacement nor Saturday's ridiculous farewell ceremony," Mottaki said.