Rouhani takes Parliament's questions over economic situation  

The president is accompanied by his first VP Es’hahgh Jahangiri, and a number of his cabinet ministers including FM Zarif, Interior Minister Rahmani-Fazli, ICT Minister Azari-Jahromi, and Minister of Culture Salehi.

VP for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari, as well as the country’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi are also present at the open session, which is being livestreamed on national TV.

Lawmakers chosen to ask the questions are given a maximum of 30 minutes to raise the questions and the president has a maximum of one hour to answer them.

The two sides can divide their time into two sections, with the first part dedicated to the Q&A and the second part reserved for the president to clear up any remaining ambiguities surrounding his given answers.

The five lawmakers questioning the president are expected to discuss the questions for 30 minutes tomorrow, and then have the president answer them.

The lawmakers can once again raise the ambiguous points in the answers and the president is required to give further explanation.

Under the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, each of the president’s answers will be be put to vote, and if two-thirds of the present lawmakers are not convinced by Rouhani’s answers to any question, that question will be referred to the Judiciary.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani approved the questioning of the president on August 1st with 80 votes.

The questions focus on the government's handling of the country’s recent economic situation, including the government’s lack of success in reigning in the currency rate and inflation, the continuation of sanctions on banking sector, the government’s failure to take appropriate measures to reduce unemployment rate, the severe economic downturn in the past few years, and the decline of the Iranian rial currency and the hike in the value of foreign currencies.

The session comes as two of Rouhani’s cabinet ministers, including Minister of Economy Masoud Karbasian and Minister of Labor Ali Rabiei were recently voted out by the Parliament.

The delicate economic situation also saw the replacement of governor of Central Bank Valiollah Seif with Abdolnaser Hemmati. Seif was under fire for the national currency devaluation.

MS