Mr. Mohammad Baqir Nowbakht was responding briefly question by the Parliamentary correspondents of the press when he was leaving Cabinet’s meeting with Parliament on Tuesday and criticized the general attitude by the Judiciary on Zanjani’s case about government’s conduct of the issue; “the government has been itself in a side to demand fair and just trial for Zanjani and believed that his execution would contribute very little to the transparency in oil corruption case and definitely endless questions would be abandoned in the collective memory of the nation unanswered,” he objected. “The Ministry of Intelligence has been willing to fully cooperate with the Judiciary in terms of information as to the case of Babak Zanjani, however, the Judiciary had been complaining about government misconduct.”
Nowbakht rejected the speculations that part of the resources recovered from Zanjani’s case had been illicitly channeled to election campaign in 2013; “the Judiciary is expected to investigate the bold claims to find the truth and provide the public with its findings,” he added, “this is still a running question for the government and the public as well how a medium citizen of modest economic means would be given so huge authority to act on behalf of a country, while no effective supervision wielded absolutely no control over his conduct in hoarding cash in foreign banks and some in his own bank overseas,” Nowbakht lamented.
On Parliament conduct on JCPOA, cabinet spokesperson hailed Mr. Larijanai’s exemplary role in placating the Parliament where arch-Principlists would pose severe challenges in the way of the deal; “Ayatollah Amoli Larijani was also equally helpful in approval of the JCPOA to whom the government feels indebted and appreciate their contribution,” his tone turned to one of commendation.
Nowbakht believed that economic growth left room for optimism in the resources and domestic capabilities of the economy; “now we have gone a long way from 40-per cent inflation and a negative growth rate to current 7.6 per cent of inflation and 6.5 per cent growth rate; the Central Bank figures show that a modest amount of investment had been attracted to economy and projects had been in the road to completion,” he told the press.
“According to World Bank and IMF statistics, Iran occupies a top place in the Middle East in terms of stability,” Mr. Nowbakht added.
He believed that speculations in the media about possible Rouhani’s disqualification by the Guardian Council were at best ludicrous; “President Rouhani has other priorities at the current times than officially throwing out the gauntlet to his presidential potential rivals; he would be still a candidate, but timing of the issue was not, he believed, propitious,” Nowbakht told the press.
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