Rouhani presents budget bill in raucous parliament session

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani presented a budget bill meant to dodge the impacts of "tyrannical US sanctions" to the country's parliament Dec. 25. The proposed $112 billion budget will cover the upcoming Iranian year running from March 21, 2019, to March 20, 2020.

The president's speech in defense of the bill was marred, however, by a group of lawmakers representing the oil-rich but underdeveloped southwestern Khuzestan province. The parliamentarians gathered in front of the podium, disrupting Rouhani's speech before they were asked by Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani to exercise restraint and let the session proceed.

The lawmakers were furious at what they believe is the government's negligence of Khuzestan's water crisis. The province has been a scene of unrest in the past several months over a host of other public woes including unemployment and dust storms. Workers at many factories there have been holding sit-ins and strikes demanding overdue salaries. A heavy-handed crackdown has led to multiple arrests, and some people have been held incommunicado for weeks.

The lawmakers' protest was criticized by most of the pro-Reformist papers. Arman described the scene as "an unprecedented incident" and Etemad published an opinion by Reformist lawmaker Mostafa Kavakebian against the gesture. While defending people's right to clean water, Kavakebian lashed out at his colleagues for failing to show courtesy and respect parliamentary decorum.