Iran Deputies Send Ahmadinejad's 'Violations' to Judiciary

Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being a caretaker of the oil ministry and sent the report of this "violation" of the constitution to the judiciary, state television website reported.

It said Ahmadinejad violated the law by "not appointing a caretaker for the oil ministry and his maintaining (himself) as a caretaker," the website said.

The deputies "insisted that the president must appoint a caretaker as soon as possible," according to Mehr news agency reporting on the text.

Iranian media said that after the report was read, 165 of the 290-seat conservative-dominated MPs voted to refer the "violations" to the judiciary, in accordance to parliament regulations.

Ahmadinejad announced on May 15 that he had taken control of Iran's most-strategic sector for an interim period after dismissing former oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi due to streamlining of the cabinet a day earlier.

The president had decided to merge the oil ministry into the energy ministry as part of a cabinet shrinkage scheme.

On May 23, Iran's Guardians Council, the body which among other duties interprets the constitution, announced that Ahmadinejad has violated the constitution.

However, the president's top legal advisor Fatemeh Bodaghi insisted that Ahmadinejad had no intention of retreating from his decision.

Parliament has successfully argued it should have the final call on cabinet streamlining, while some lawmakers have criticized the disappearance of a ministry which is responsible for nearly 80 percent of Iran's annual earnings.

The struggle over the control of the oil ministry comes with a month of Ahmadinejad's dismissal of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi which was promptly vetoed by the all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.