Cabinet spokesperson downplays arrest of nuclear spy

Mohammad Bagher Nowbakht who was participating in his weekly press conference on Tuesday downplayed the arrest of a nuclear spy. In response to a question on the issue, Nowbakht refused to provide further comment, but at the same time, told the press that the arrested spy had been released on bail, which indicated that the issue had not been grave.

A question touched upon highly contested issue of cancelling live music concerts, to which Nowbakht briefly said that all should respect the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, since it had considered all possible aspects, either conventional or legal; “the responsible government bodies as well should enforce the law legislated through legitimate mechanisms,” was his response which was to evade the question of oppositions to live concerts in some parts of the country. His response also left unanswered the government’s lackluster performance which purportedly was to secure the implementation of law, an issue dominant in President Rouhani’s election campaign of 2013.

Still on another hot issue of ‘inordinate salary bill scandal,’ cabinet spokesperson reacted to a Judiciary official remarks who had said earlier last week that the government had filed no lawsuits in the highly controversial salary scandal; “government would not support any individual breaking the law, and the Judiciary is independently legible to act on this; however, our investigation into the nature of the issue returned no illegal payments; only public justice was undermined in the issue when public money was funneled through loopholes in the law,” he detailed.

On Mina incident anniversary, Nowbakht criticized Saudi insouciance and failure to cooperation as the major barriers to government’s efforts in reviving the rights to reimbursement of the families of victims; “the social responsibility still lies with Saudi government and they should be held accountable to the Muslim world at large for their sheer incompetence in bringing to justice the perpetrators in the tragic event last year,” he objected.

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