Education Minister Ali Asghar Fani received an official warning from parliamentarians as he failed to win the support of the Majlis after he was summoned for questioning on Tuesday.
Fani appeared before parliament to answer questions posed by Urmia lawmaker Nader Qazipour over a series of complaints about his handling of the education ministry, employment contracts for teachers and their payments.
After answering those questions, Fani received the so-called "yellow card" from the 290-strong parliament as 144 lawmakers, more than half of the MPs who were present at the session, voted no, meaning that they were not satisfied with his answers.
The vote will put the embattled minister in a difficult position because he is now one step away from a full impeachment by parliament.
Based on the parliamentary procedure, the failure of a minister, who has been summoned to parliament for questioning, to win the majority support of lawmakers for the third time entitles MPs to submit a motion to the Majlis presiding board calling for his impeachment.
This was not the first time that the education minister came under fire by parliament. In early January, parliamentarians prepared an impeachment motion against Fani because of what they cited as his failure to fulfill the pledges he made to obtain a vote of confidence from parliament in 2013 when he was nominated by President Hassan Rouhani.
At that time the Majlis presiding board did not allow the impeachment motion to go ahead.
