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Last update - 19:15 19/07/2009
Report: Iran's 'friend of Israel' VP resigns amid outcry
By News Agencies
Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khamenei 

Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, whose appointment sparked an outcry because of previous comments in which he said Iranians were friends of Israelis, resigned Sunday, local media said.

State-run English language Press TV said Mashaie "no longer wanted the job" of first vice president and had resigned because of the row.

There was no immediate confirmation of the decision.
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had come under fire from leading hardliners for naming Mashaie as his top deputy on Thursday.

Analysts say Ahmadinejad's decision to appoint Mashaie, to whom he is related by marriage, suggests that the president has a small entourage of people he trusts.

In rare public criticism, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, an Ahmadinejad ally and member of the top legislative body, said Ahmadinejad had shown "a twisted face to clerics and elites" by appointing Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as vice president last Thursday.

"Ahmadinejad should not challenge conservatives with such decisions. I request the President to replace him before more criticisms are made," the hardline cleric was quoted as saying by the Khorasan newspaper.

Many hardline lawmakers and clerics, including several top clerics, had called on the president to dismiss Mashaie for his comments. Ahmadinejad, already at the center of a post-election crisis, remained defiant. He said Mashaie's comments had been "misrepresented."

Mashaie, previously one of several vice presidents and in charge of a culture and tourism body, angered hard-liners in 2008 when he said Iranians were friends of all people in the world - even Israelis.

The row ended after Iran's most powerful figure Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who backs Ahmadinejad, said in September the remarks "are not right but the dispute should end."

Ahmadinejad himself has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction, and most hard-liners consider the country Iran's archenemy.

A hardline editor seen as close to Iran's top authority also criticized Ahmadinejad's choice of the first vice president, which unlike ministers does not need approval of parliament.

"Ahmadinejad's appointment of Mashaie as his first vice president brought shock, regret and concern to his voters," said Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of the hardline Kayhan daily.

"It is necessary for Ahmadinejad to take back the first vice presidency from Mashaie," Shariatmadari wrote in the daily.

Mashaie also came under fire for hosting a ceremony in November where women in traditional dress carried in Muslim's holy book, the Koran, to music, an action deemed insulting to Koran.

Lawmaker Hamid Rasai said Iranian society was very sensitive over Mashaie, a close relative to Ahmadinejad through marriage.

"I believe it would have been better if he had not been appointed," the Etemad-e Melli newspaper quoted Rasai, an ally of Ahmadinejad, as saying.

A pro-reform lawmaker said Ahmadinejad could be impeached over his decision.

"Now lawmakers can question Ahmadinejad or even impeach him for this appointment," the newspaper quoted Dariush Ghanbari as saying. Analysts say Ahmadinejad's impeachment is unlikely, as parliament is dominated by hardliners.

Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a June presidential vote, which stirred the largest display of internal unrest in Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, since the 1979 revolution and exposed deep rifts in its ruling elite.

Defeated moderate candidates say the vote was rigged in favor of Ahmadinejad, who has called the vote "the world's freest election".

But there are still many hardliners who back him such as Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi who said in remarks published on Saturday that the Iranian government drew its legitimacy from "the Almighty God."


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      1.   Ahmadinejad is also jewish 20:16  |  Tahmasb 19/07/09
      2.   There is an old saying, 21:21  |  Natallie Durson 19/07/09
      3.   Intriguing Mystery 21:47  |  BDF 19/07/09
      4.   He has trapped himself 21:48  |  Mark Lincoln 19/07/09
      5.   So What 22:07  |  Brian 19/07/09
      6.   Hardliners are unfriendly to Jews and Israel 22:38  |  Anonymous 19/07/09
      7.   To #2, Natilie 23:18  |  Dean 19/07/09
      8.   Persians are not the enemy of Israel 00:06  |  Observer 20/07/09
      9.   Iran 01:43  |  Jan 20/07/09
      10.   this proves my point 02:40  |  VIPER 20/07/09
      11.   No flexibility in Iran government 02:49  |  US CITIZEN 20/07/09
      12.   He`s No Jew 07:05  |  Dave 20/07/09
      13.   Natalie Durson 07:08  |  John 20/07/09
      14.   Ahmadinajad is stuck 07:33  |  Lola 20/07/09
      15.   Differences between Iran & Israel 07:49  |  Lola 20/07/09
      16.   He is Gipsy 12:11  |  Zarebin 20/07/09
      17.   Differences Iran / Israel 13:13  |  Daniel 20/07/09
      18.   It`s time to go on 13:37  |  Tommy 20/07/09
      19.   Sad that people like natalie can`t see the difference from their 14:33  |  ks 20/07/09
      20.   Wiki/ahmadinejad 16:02  |  Leon 20/07/09
      21.   Dave in Riverside, CA 22:31  |  Persian Kitty 20/07/09
      22.   Lola and Ks 22:44  |  Persian Kitty 20/07/09
      23.   Daniel of Lyon 23:46  |  arik 20/07/09
      24.   Lola - Womens Rights? Oh Please 04:09  |  Marc Leb 24/07/09
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