Al-Monitor - Iranian lawmakers behind a motion to impeach President Hassan Rouhani immediately backpedaled on their bid after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly opposed it.

A televised address by Iran�s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the country�s new parliament July 12 covered a wide range of topics from foreign policy and the domestic economy to the coronavirus pandemic. But what grabbed the most media attention was his rejection of a plan by some lawmakers to impeach President Hassan Rouhani. �The closing year of any administration is usually the most sensitive one. � I do strongly believe that administrations should work hard to the very end of their tenure and fulfill their responsibilities,�Ayatollah Khamenei said.

For weeks, hard-line parliamentarians had been lobbying and collecting signatures to �bring down� the president before his second term came to an end. The project was shut down with a simple statement by the supreme leader that he did not find the impeachment effort to be in the best interest of the country.

Two days after the supreme leader�s speech, one of the dogged architects of the impeachment bid, Javad Nikbin reversed his previous confrontational stance, announcing that the motion �is no longer on our agenda.� The ultraconservative cleric from the Paydari Movement � the parliament�s most hard-line and anti-Rouhani faction � noted, however, �We still need close oversight of the government�s performance.�

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