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crisis, yet Iranian authorities’ track record of repeated failure is happening again.”
An attempt by human rights groups within Iran to take the government to court for mishandling the crisis has been blocked, and some of the instigators arrested, the Guardian reported.
Following the end of a six-day lockdown, officials announced that closure orders would still apply to indoor shopping malls, wedding halls, cinemas, theatres, gyms, swimming pools, amusement parks and exhibition centres.
The Iranian Chamber of Guilds estimated last week that Iran has lost as much as $10.9bn in income since the start of the pandemic early last year.
2.2 Iranian parliament clears all but one of Raisi’s cabinet nominees
The Iranian parliament (Majlis) on the evening of August 26 voted on whether to confirm the appointments of 18 proposed ministers to make up the cabinet of the new president, hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, after four days of deliberations. There was only one rejection.
As previously expected by people close to the process, MPs rejected Hossein Baghgoli, the nominee for education minister, with only 76 representatives voting for him out of 290. A nominee must receive half of the parliamentarians' votes to be accepted as a minister. Some lawmakers complained Baghgoli had a lack of experience in the subject of education, according to local reports.
All the other nominees, who come from the “Principalist” camp, were cleared for their positions.
Prior to the voting, Raisi visited the parliament building to make the case for his nominees, who will succeed members of the cabinet of his predessor, pragmatic moderate Hassan Rouhani. Among those stepping down are Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's well-known foreign minister. He is to become a tenured professor at Tehran University.
RFE/RL reported on August 26 that Raisi addressed his first cabinet meeting, saying that Iran is "seriously lagging behind" in certain social and economic areas and the government must act to "improve people's livelihoods" as the country grapples with a surge in coronavirus cases.
7 IRAN Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com