Iran International
Hardline lawmakers in Iran have once again turned to impeachment, targeting four ministers in President Masoud Pezeshkian’s cabinet, in what critics say is a bid to stall the government rather than to offer alternatives.
On Thursday, Ahmad Bigdeli, a member of parliament from Khodabandeh, told Khabar Online that hardliners had tabled motions against Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi, Roads and Urban Planning Minister Farzaneh Sadegh, Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri and Labor Minister Ahmad Maydari.
Bigdeli called the move “untimely and most probably ineffective and symbolic,” echoing the outcome of the only successful impeachment to date during Pezeshkian's term: that of Economy Minister Abdolnasser Hemmati in March.
The move against Hemmati was widely viewed as pointless, as he was replaced by Ali Madanizadeh, whose economic policies closely mirror his predecessor’s.
‘Destabilizing’
Over the past year, hardliners have made their presence felt in scattered episodes—from the ousting of Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif to parliamentary scuffles over leadership—but have repeatedly disappointed their grassroots by settling for short-term wins.
Lacking both strategy and leadership, they now appear more intent on limiting Pezeshkian’s room to maneuver than on offering alternatives.
“Hardliners are using impeachment as a tool to pressure the Pezeshkian administration,” moderate journalist and politician Mohammad Sadegh Javadihesar said. “Such moves destabilize the government while the country is at war.”
Moderate political activist Ali Bagheri added a warning: “Impeaching four or five ministers will break the government’s back,” he told the moderate daily Etemad. “When the administration is destabilized, even local officials in small towns cannot fulfill their responsibilities.”
Even some conservatives distanced themselves from the move against the executive.
“Radical MPs are targeting the administration for political gain,” conservative MP Jalal Rashidi Kochi said. “There’s no doubt some ministers are unfit for their roles, but I wish Pezeshkian would take the initiative to replace them.”
‘Costly for people’
The episode underscored how hardliners appear to lack a coherent plan of their own.
The renewed brinkmanship also reflects a deeper struggle within the conservative camp, which has failed to reclaim dominance since the death of hardline president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last year.
Its cohesion further eroded after the death of ultraconservative cleric Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, founder of the influential Paydari Party.
His would-be successor, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, largely avoids the spotlight, leaving the faction without a unifying figure.
“Hardliners thought Raisi’s administration would last forever and keep them in power,” moderate journalist Hamidreza Jalaipour told Khabar Online.
Condemning their rhetoric—including threats to exit the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and shut down the Strait of Hormuz—he said: “They are victims of their own illusions, for which the country pays a high price.”
