Iranian parliament sets to question Ahmadinejad

A new motion was presented to the Iranian Majlis (parliament) presiding board on Sunday calling for questioning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the local Mehr news agency reported. The motion, signed by 73 lawmakers in the 290-seat parliament, was presented to deputy Majlis speaker Mohammadreza Bahonar on Sunday, said the report. It is the second time that a motion is presented to the presiding board to question the president. In late June, a motion signed by 100 lawmakers was submitted to the Majlis called for questioning Ahmadinejad. Later 14 of them retracted their signatures. According to Iran's constitution, the president must appear in the parliament to answer lawmakers' questions when at least one fourth of all the 290 lawmakers sign a motion summoning him. Last week, local media reported 29 Iranian lawmakers had retracted their signatures from a motion calling for the country's president to be questioned. Iranian lawmaker Ali Motahhari was reported to have sent his resignation to the presiding board about two weeks ago to protest the inaction of the Majlis presiding board after receiving the motion in June to summon Ahmadinejad to the parliament. Currently, there are some disputes between Iranian hardliner conservatives and Ahmadinejad over some domestic and international policies, appointment and removal of key political figures.