TIMES ONLINE: Hardliners have forced out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s deputy, despite his being a member of the President’s family.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie’s departure comes just four days after he was appointed. Mr Mashaie, whose daughter is married to President Ahmadinejad’s son, had outraged clerics and politicians after saying that the Islamic Republic was a “friend of the Israeli people”.
Mr Mashaie’s resignation was announced by Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language television station. Last week another vice-president, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who headed Iran’s nuclear programme, also resigned. Mr Mashaie also attracted conservatives’ disapproval after allegedly watching unveiled women dancing at a tourism exhibition in Turkey two years ago.
The resignation came amid reports that a British Embassy employee would be released on bail after three weeks in jail on charges of inciting unrest after last month’s disputed election.
Hossein Rassam, chief analyst at the embassy in Tehran, was the last of nine embassy staff accused of involvement in opposition rallies.
The President had shown a “twisted face to clerics and elites” by appointing Mr Mashaie, said Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hardline Ahmadinejad ally. “Ahmadinejad should not challenge conservatives with such decisions. I request the President to replace him before more criticisms are made,” he said.
The President’s choice of first vice-president does not need Parliament’s approval but his new cabinet ministers will.
Mr Ahmadinejad would have struggled to get his ministerial choices past parliament. Mr Mashaie’s departure could make that task easier. >>> Michael Purcell in Iran | Sunday, July 19, 2009
