Iran's Leader Allows Amendment of Law Against Probe by ParliamentIran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Saturday authorized the Expediency Council (EC) to amend its bylaw banning probe into performance of organs under his office's supervision.The decision was disclosed in a letter to EC Chairman Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has asked for an approval of the amendment, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported. Parliamentary deputies, who are overwhelmingly reformists, have been seeking to call to account the television and radio networks and exercise control over its budget, which some of the deputies have accused of biased operations. But the conservative-dominated Guardian Council (GC), the top constitutional supervisory body, has rejected the parliament's bid for a cut in the budget allocated for the state media. Earlier this month, Khamenei has given the greenlight to the parliament to overhaul the performance of the state media to " ensure the safe operations of the networks" and asked the EC to revise the law entrusting the right to probe because the EC arbitrates disputes between the parliament and the GC. "The Guardian Council has blocked the Expediency Council from making any amendment to the law," Rafsanjani said in a letter to Khamenei, asking for Khamenei to give go-ahead to the EC if he deems it necessary for the law to be amended. |
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