The Hassan Rouhani administration took office two years ago and has undoubtedly primarily focused its energy and political clout on the nuclear talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. But domestically, Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament has been more active than ever in pushing back the administration and targeting its ministers through summoning them to parliament, issuing yellow warning cards and using threats of impeachment.

The front pages of two Iranian newspapers, Ebtekar and Aftab-e Yazd, wrote Aug. 13 about this active parliament in targeting Rouhani’s ministers.

Ebtekar published an article titled “A new season of political impeachments,” which read, “The Rouhani administration has reached the halfway point and already the record for most questions by members of parliament put to ministers has been broken. [Parliament] has asked approximately 2,000 questions of the Cabinet.” 

The article said that while questioning ministers is part of the parliament’s function, “many believe that in the last two years another goal was used for this function.” The article states that with the exception of a handful of ministers, ministers “have felt the shadow of impeachment above their heads.” The article's reasons for record number of summons and questions range from personal issues to having an eye on the 2016 parliamentary elections.