Iran's parliament disqualifies Rouhani's cabinet candidates

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament Thursday did not give votes of confidence to three candidates of President Hassan Rouhani's 18-member cabinet, Xinhua reported.

Mohammad-Ali Najafi, candidate for education ministry, and Jafar Mili-Monfared, candidate for ministry of science, research and technology, did not receive the approval of Iranian legislators.

This is mainly because they were criticised as being involved in or having sympathy with the defeated candidate of Iran's presidential election in 2009, for whom the conservatives have coined the term "seditionist".

Mir-Hossein Mousavi, an Iranian reformist politician who was defeated in the 2009 presidential election, alleged at the time that the election results were rigged in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Besides, Masoud Soltanifar, candidate for the ministry of sports and the youth, failed to gain vote of confidence from parliament because of his "irrelevant" experience for the post.

On Monday, Iran's parliament (Majlis) started to study the qualifications of the proposed cabinet line-up.

The Iranian president must introduce new nominees for the three posts to parliament within 15 days. To be officially appointed as ministers, the new candidates should also be endorsed by the lawmakers' votes.